ODE FOR JOHN OLIVER SIMON

May you always dream
of the freedom of clouds
scutting across the sky.
May your laughter be
raucous as the crows at sunset
and carry their dark wisdom forth.
May you sleep soundly
with wild birds in your heart.
And may your thoughts be
like godbeams of the sun
at daybreak to pierce
the ordinary and the mundane.
And may the mountains rise up
to hold you on their crests
so that the stars may find you
shining among them
like a thought bearing witness
to your words shedding light
on this earthly plane.

2/14/2018



I don't know when I wrote this, I think it was at Emerson on Valentine's Day. What's weird is that it's typed up and I can't find a copy of it anywhere. Not even on my blog. So unlike me to type up a poem, and then not save it. And by habit, I now post everything in my blog so that I can find it again. As I was getting ready to read at John's literary wake, it fell out of a folder I had from Emerson. I looked through all my kid poems typed up from Emerson, Glenview, and Cleveland, thinking I had typed it in class and didn't move it over. Nada. Since I have to post it somewhere, Valentine's Day is a good a day as any.