Lines for a Friend

(For my long-time friend and colleague Les Greenberg, in memory of Brenda Greenberg.  I wrote this in a restaurant in Antwerp on the day Brenda died after a tragic traffic accident.  It’s only now that I feel I can post this, with Les’ permission.)

My mind reels with the senselessness 

of this death too soon

My heart aches for you and your family 

And the place where she is missing now

I weep for our fragile hearts and minds 

so easily torn by happenstance 

Perhaps it is the gift of people like her 

with their solidity and groundedness

to make us forget this for a time

But it’s all the more painful when we wake 

to the desolation of their passing

Still I think you would not trade away this pain

Which points the way to mind's profoundest sense

Of what she brought, gave and left behind

In all deepest places of your heart.

-25 April 2013