George Harrison’s widow talks of life, death through poetry

NEW YORK — The first line of Olivia Harrison’s book of poetry captures a feeling universal to everyone who has lost a loved one. She remembers him welcoming her into his Friar Park estate west of London for the first time with the gentle words, “Olivia, welcome home.” They drove up in “John and Yoko’s long white car.” It was another hint that she wasn’t just marrying anyone, along with her description of the day “the legendary Slowhand dropped in with the ex-Mrs.” That would be Eric Clapton, with George’s ex-wife Patti. “I thought I would try to get it over with in three verses.” Her husband never talked publicly about losing his first wife to Clapton, and Harrison’s poem indicates it didn’t go well. “Dhani and I are really there to look after George’s legacy,” she said. She also writes of “one more meeting, I’ve written the scene, where I get off my chest one final thing.” What might that meeting be like?