Closer to the Bone
Gary Snyder Sometime in the late 1970’s, I sat on a blanket, sharing a picnic with my then-husband and listening to Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge on stage, at the grassy edge of the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. Warm, liquid sunshine poured over us and the music was wonderful. Just two people singing songs they had, for the most part, written themselves, in jeans and romantic, blousy shirts, accompanied by a guitar. I was impressed at how they handled the microphone, pulling their heads away when they took breaths, so as not to spoil the song. Kristofferson’s writing had long been a favorite of mine. He gave himself in other ways too, as an actor, getting himself into trouble often enough, but never repudiating any of it. And his song-writing grew to include the masterful song “Closer to the Bone,” released in 2009, in which he finds himself still “open to the pleasure, equal to the pain.” Kristofferson died in 2024, but I found him to be a standard of artistic integrity by which...
