Written ‘In Synergy’ with “Gazing Again” by Ed Barguiarena
We see your silent and material portion
join the earth from which it once arose —
with no persona, perhaps in time
to build into another fabric, living or inert.
A stone provides dumb witness to your past.
A name among some others begs
for passers-by to suppose the place
you filled among these other folk.
Pervading green around us holds
the cosmic prospect you endorsed,
a life that does improve, the harmony
you sang until your favoured end.
Your crowning essence stays with us,
an impact that endures forevermore
through promised children’s children,
everlasting garland of the aged.
Russell Smith was born in Toronto and educated at McGill (Montreal) and Cambridge. He writes alternatively in Ottawa, Canada and in Pasadena CA, depending on the weather. His three works of fiction and four collections of poetry have all appeared since he abandoned teaching — most recently Bring Me My Arrows: Poems Tracing the Spectrum Between Doubt and Certainty.
