Thucydides Hilocometoot (“T.H.”) Chalm died in his sleep in the early morning of December 19, 2015. He was age 48 at the time of his death.
Born in 1967 on a Queensland, Australia kangaroo ranch, Chalm was educated in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Prague, ultimately settling in Languedoc, France. He loved racquetball, rugby, cooking tacos, and watching television. Chalm had no surviving relatives.
In his will, Chalm bequeathed all his worldly property, comprising his meager possessions and approximately one thousand (1,000) unpublished poems, to his friend and attorney, Roland Wiederaenders, of Austin, Texas, in trust, requesting that the poems be published posthumously in the discretion of Mr. Wiederaenders. Memorial donations may be made in Chalm’s name to the charity that he supported for many years through his time, talent, and treasury, the Multidisciplinary Association For Psychedelic Studies.
Chalm’s favorite poem (that he did not write himself!) was by Dylan Thomas and serves as a fitting memoriam to Chalm’s life and work, which will never be forgotten:
And Death Shall Have No Dominion
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead man naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan’t crack;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.
Chalm requested cremation and that his ashes should be cast into his beloved Barton Springs, in Austin, Texas. His wishes will be carried out by Mr. Wiederaenders at a brief memorial service to be held there January 1, 2016, at noon. Everyone who loved Thucydides (or “T.H.” as he was known by his friends) is invited to attend!
Thucydides Chalm is dead!
Long live Thucydides Chalm!
T.H. Chalm 