I wrote this poem three years ago in anticipation of reading it during an Stone Soup anniversary reading. I never did. I include it here after much rewriting just to have a start for myself.
To Jack Powers
Thought I was espousing truth,
saying I didn't run
your free range flocks
but rode a mechanical bull ride
unsaddled, never turned off,
thrown off often.
In truth, in mounting
and remounting
we actually run, dive,
imitating childs first
journey off training wheels,
becoming more afraid
of the first straight-on
than any crash,
hoping they come back
to pass you.
1 comment:
Chad, I have been thinking about you and trust you are well and know your love for Jack will be a luminous flame for your life. I was in Boston this week on a business trip for a few days and visited our brother in the North End on Wednesay Oct. 13. I sang to him and placed my hands on him for a long time, giving him Reiki. Though his eyes were closed and breathing his last hours, he did respond to the Panis Angelicus, Danny Boy and My Dog Blue (Appalachian song)which Jack loved since our first days at Stone Soup in the 70s. Jack's soul is a spiritual cornucopia that continually feeds those in need, all of us, with his home cooked meals of brotherly love, spaghetti dinners for the homeless at St. John's, Beacon Hill Free School classes, the Book Mobile, poetry in the allie behind Goodspeed's on break with a beer in '71 on my days off from welding cargo ships in Quincy Ship Yard. Jack's life is a contemplation in selfless service, --- Chad, thank you for your tireless work, your joy street embrace of Jack's still pulsing spirit. Danny Shanahan -Stone Soup (1971)
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