WAVE ON
(For JAMES WRIGHT
In Memoriam)
1927-1980)

A wordsmith has earned
a place in posterity
from the heartland
to sum up his time
with a visionary voice
of a grace we have discerned
to matter what in humanity
you dream for us
in the woods of solitary silence
we have learned
so much from your verse
being an eyewitness
as a flying Dutchman
watching sky birds
in the night sky air
as you walked on the beach
by ever living stones
reaching for a conch shell
to put it up to your ear
and listen to an echo
near the lake's shore
to wave you on in Ohio
with names of stars
in a full rising moon
where angels meet
whispering to you, James
over fairly open wheat fields
battling the frozen elements
where children build a snow man,
you remember those who survive
as in Achilles shield,
you hear the priest's sexton
awakening an open steel door
in the sanctuary of revival
to reveal incense going up
intermingling immortal fires
and then in the breeze's
early winter air
you take a long walk
amid nature's forest breeze
brushing by rival winds
as words reshape you
overlooking an icy lake
feeling as a sparrow on a roof
holding your pen in hand
as you proof read images
on many a poet's page
in a woven labyrinth of rain
as you sit under the fir trees
with Christmas lights
on December 13th
tiny flakes of snow
cover you with night's wonder
a hovering bird on a white branch
sings out to you
over your birthday's
lasting quatrain.