Book excerpt: During the last years of his life, McGrath found it extremely difficult--often impossible--to write. Still he continued to write new poems, enlarging his work-in-progress, Death song, knowing the book would be finished only upon his own death. He died September 20, 1990 following a long illness, leaving the manuscript in the hands of his editor, Sam Hamill. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR