Late fragment

by Raymond Carver

“And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.”

Raymond Carver died of lung cancer in 1988, at the young age of 50. “Late fragment” was his last piece, written during the final stages of his illness. I love its simplicity and it’s sense of accomplishment in the face of mortality. The triumph of love and the human spirit.