3-4-2015: I'm still alive and kicking.
Raymond Carver died in 1988 at the age of 50. He is considered one of America's greatest masters of the short story form. He smoked and drank himself to death. He requested two verses from his last published poems be inscribed on his marker:
GRAVY
I'm a lucky man.
I've had ten years longer than I or anyone
expected. Pure gravy.
And don't forget it.
--
:LATE FRAGMENT
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.
--
If angels exist, he is their muse, too.
Location
Uranus (or mine)