Monday, June 24, 2013

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