In 1996, as James Dickey struggled with his impending death and endeavored to overcome it - an effort that had always engaged his imagination - he re-established his priorities. Recognizing that he would die from suffocation brought on by fibrosis of the lungs, he attempted to wring two long poems, "Show Us the Sea" and "For Jules Bacon," from his earlier works and from his old self, not the drunken genius but the football player and weight lifter, the combat aviator and caring father. The transformation was, in all-important respects, a resurrection.These two lengthy poems, together with shorter poems, are thus, literally, the "last motion" but thematically, these works allude to his previous poetic efforts and summarize his life as death approached.
