Those precious memories of you Nick, will always bring a smile,
If only we could have you back, for just a little while,
Then we could sit and talk again, just like we used to do,
You always meant the world to us, and always will do too,
To know you are no longer here, will always cause us such pain,
But you are forever in our hearts, until we meet again.
TJ
4th October 2021
A poem for Nicholas. When Great Trees Fall by Maya Angelou. This was read out beautifully by Hadge at Nicholas's goodbye service.
When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.
Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of
dark, cold
caves.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.
TJ
18th June 2021