Charles L. Black Jr., Constitutional Law Expert Who Wrote on Impeachment, Dies at 85. Even if you know, or care, nothing about legal scholarship, read about this much-beloved renaissance man. My best friend in medical school married his son and I was often privileged to be a guest in his home. At Yale, he gave an annual Louis Armstrong Night flocked to by the law students he taught, and by me. I’ll never forget the rapture and reverence with which he would spin those Armstrong discs for the assembled. He was a poet as well:
In process of letting go the breath,
Moment for relieving your eyes’ ache,
You see bark patterns, a child’s hand
Catching and throwing, next to the tree.
You have to relive all your days
To receive the gift of surprise
At words you didn’t quite hear, once riding.
Do what you can; everything will come
In memory if never in experience.
Revisit, retell. Love sounds deeper
Out of time than in time. Act love
Imperfectly; you will remember love itself.
“Letting Go”, (1985)
Rest in peace, Professor Black. Laurie and Gavin, my deepest sympathies to you and the rest of your family.
