Poem for Frank

I've written this poem for the occasion of a memorial service we're hosting for my beloved cousin Frank this coming Saturday.  Last week Marissa and I went to Marder's nursery where we picked out a beautiful birch tree that we'll be planting in our front yard next weekend when we're joined by Rachel & Eli and other friends and family. 

Poem for Frank


For weeks

I’ve been dulled

By your loss

Giving rise to a sense 

Of dread that can't 

Quite be named

When the hawk

Glided off past

The Sarasota Pine

Straight towards

The Eastern Ranges

I wondered to myself

Shall we ever

Meet again

What has been

Taken from us

Is the pith

Of a summer

That can never 

Be reclaimed

*  *  *

Fairest of the lot

Unspeakably sane

Perdurably mild

Yet solidly framed

By balance

And ballast

Both equally blessed

By nature irenic

Of calmness possessed

Forthright

In demeanor

Of the Tribe

From the plains

Forever Frank

In disposition and name

And fixed in our hearts

As you'll always remain

*  *  *

Now to the leeward

Of the towering beech

Where we’re planting

A graceful white birch

And mixing your ashes

There amidst the tendrils

And roots

It’s a sheltered spot

For a ferryboat stop

At the base of

A shadow-less tree

Let it also be a resting place for

Your carapace and

Vouchsafe for your

Soul’s complete

And speedy release

Frank's white birch