by Dan Campion

“Robert Redford, Screen Idol Turned Director and Activist, Dies at 89”
—The New York Times

Yes, handsome. Hawthorne might have said
Too handsome for this world.
Yet, eighty-nine years! Accolade
On accolade! Hair curled

Just so, swept, really, like a hint.
That smile. That Sundance hat.
Those candid eyes of oceans’ tint.
Roy Hobbs’s glove and bat.

An idol of the marketplace,
Totemic, in his prime,
Of course, he had a classic face.
But faces yield to time.

So Robert crafted subtler plays
For beauty to succeed,
And they survive beyond his days,
Friends to a world in need.