Even in the gathering

Shadows of dusk,

When death had lost

All its terror,

You welcomed

The new dawn to come

With such relief.

And when I asked you softly,

Surely with tears

Welling in my eyes,

If you had to go,

You nodded gently.



With a flicker

Of the sunset

On your beautiful face

One more time,

You smiled in

One last goodbye.

Then you were gone,

Like the colored scent

Of a bouquet of

Evening blossoms

Spiraling heavenwards

To the waiting sunrise.



And so, in a last adieu, I say…



Why do I continue to love you,

Even if I do not try?

Why do I continue to remember

When I can no longer cry?

But then you never doubted

Even as you said goodbye.

So fly on, my Angel, fly.

You looked after

The garden of my soul.

You nurtured it,

You kept it whole.

Who will watch over it

Now that you are gone?

Will the fates care for it

Just as you have done?



You made each friend feel special,

Each friend who felt your touch.

They tell me how you cared for them,

Each one, so very much.

I can believe your friends,

All those who tell me this.

I too have felt your warming touch

Like a lingering summer kiss.



I found myself denying

Some thoughts I had of you,

In order to prevent the darkness

That threatened to break through.

I thought of all the happier times

That you and I have had,

And tried to forget the moment

When everything went sad.

Loving can never be easy

When one is grieving so,

But simply by denying,

Can one ever then let go?



As you sleep in the fading light,

I rejoice in the time we had together.

I gaze on visions of you fondly in

The night’s stillness, and remember

How everything then was so right

In all the moments we had together,

Moments of life, of time, and of love

Cherished and nourished forever.

Sleep well, sleep tight, my Love,

To the embrace of God surrender.

Your summer kiss lingers

In the deepening autumn of life,

Whether in good times or in bad,

And in victory or in strife,

Recalling to two hearts together,

Even as it did back then,

The fragrance of spring’s coming,

Not simply where but when.



I do continue to love you,

I do not have to try.

I will continue to remember,

Though I no longer cry.

You never doubted God’s love,

Even when you said, “Goodbye.”

So fly on, my Angel, fly!

All endings are just part of new beginnings,

And all beginnings never truly end.

How wonderful for us to spend the later years, and still love the taste of life.

The grown man, trudging towards the warm colors of God’s sunset, arms spread,

Making like a bird caught in the updrafts of the evening breeze,

There is so much still of the little boy in every man.

But the man is not alone. All our stories eventually converge,

Like stones rolling into each other beneath a gliding river.

Each of our lives is blessed with some portrait of love or friendship

That consoles the winter of the later years.

One life can no more be separated

from another,

Than rain can be separated from the clouds.

Life and years intersect, and life and years change lives.

There is a balance to it all: one withers, another grows.

Life and years are parts of a whole: life and years touch us all.

And in time all the pieces of the puzzle will fit.

As for now, the grown man will soar on the wings of heaven,

The boy who yesterday was learning how to fly.

Behold!
The setting god
Sits on his western throne
And starry armies, at his call,
Shine forth.

The blind boy
Reaches for the night sky,
And sees the stars.

Through the storm, my tears
Run parallel with the rain
On the window pane.

Leafless trees
Wag bony fingers
At the stormy sky.

Witches, goblins
All about.
“Trick or treat,”
The children shout.

Fiery faces
In the dark.
The alley cats shriek
And the doggies bark.

Candies, pennies,
Bags are full.
Happy dwarf,
Grinning ghoul.