David Berlin Eye

David Berlin Eye 1960-2023

In one of his poems, David Berlin Eye wrote that he wished to leave this world like “new snow that sublimes, that goes from a solid to a gas, skipping the liquid altogether.” In mid-January, while enjoying hot soup on a winter’s day, David suffered a series of strokes that, as he wished, took his life quickly. Convention and predictability and fairness are constructs of the human mind, not of the body.

David’s most recent position was professor of poetry, creative writing, and literature at Ohio Wesleyan University. He also taught at New York University, Syracuse University, St. John’s University, Manhattan College, and Cazenovia College. After earning a BA from The College of William and Mary, David spent four years in the military, which placed him in an elite group of writers who served in both the U.S. Army and the Broadway tour of Cats. Prior to earning an MFA in Poetry from Syracuse University and becoming a professor, David worked as an actor for 17 years in New York City. Growing up in a small town, spending time on his grandparents farm, serving in the Army, and enjoying time with his many friends and family figure heavily in his chapbook (Rain Leaping Up When a Cab Goes Past) and in his book of poetry (Seed). David’s poetry has appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies. He received scholarships to the 2014 Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the 2016 West Chester University Poetry Conference. He was the winner of the 2014 Hudson Valley Writers Guild Non-Fiction Award in Humor and was a finalist in the 2015-2016 Tennessee Williams Poetry Contest, selected by Yusef Komunyakaa.

David loved his students and cherished being able to sow into them literary knowledge but also values of goodness. He wanted to continuously teach them to be more kind, thoughtful, and free thinking people. Someone described David as the perfect man: one who could build a house and then sit down and sew curtains for it. He so enjoyed his roles as son, brother, uncle, cousin, teacher, and friend. He was an amazing dancer, mixologist, and cultivator of relationships. His rich voice, his warm laughter and hugs, the twinkle in his eye, his spontaneity—these qualities and so many more will be sorely missed, but the beauty and wisdom of his words will continue to comfort and inspire.

David is survived by his mother, Shirley Cunningham Eye and her partner, Ken Lapin; his sister, Suzan E. Mann and her husband, Gerry; his niece, Kathleen M. Popowycz and her husband Josh; his nephew, Forrest Mann; his two aunts, Doris Anne McKamey and Fay Ellen Cunningham and her husband Greg Jones; and his cousins, Allan Cunningham and his wife Pam, Cindy Johnson, Mary Leigh Layne, Lindy Emery, Lisa Emery, Tom Emery and his wife Megan, Courtney Holton, April Greenwood and her husband Rick; and his dearest friends and colleagues. David was preceded in death by his father Bruce Mauzy Eye.

David’s writing often reflected his affinity for the natural world. His appreciation of its cyclical quality and perpetuity are represented by his choice to be an organ donor and (to paraphrase) by his wish not to be revered on a mantelpiece or enshrined on a shelf, but to be spilled in a wave, a salty breeze, and turned in a heap behind the house. David wrote that “not everything must be seen to be remembered,” but “we will look for [him] in every iris bloom.”

Because the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, was an integral part of David’s life, for those who wish to make a memorial contribution, please consider a donation to FAWC as an expression of your love. Below is the link to the donation site: www.fawc.org(http://www.fawc.org/). Scroll down to GIVE, and before leaving the site, indicate in whose memory the donation is made.

A celebration of David’s life will be held April 8, 2023, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Stevenson Ridge in Spotsylvania County, VA. Additional information will be provided at a later date.