My Friend Bill

Come, my friend, though you be lost

from my sight, walk now and talk with me. 

My mind’s eye sees you and my heart’s 

ear listens to you, as the same sea 

we both once watched caresses the sand 

at the edge of the Bay, while crying gulls

fly deep again into the copper bright horizon, 

to be absorbed like tendrils  of thin smoke 

disappeared into the kindly dark of evening.

Any man’s death, it was said, diminishes me;

but I know the spirit that lives in every good man

will enrich the lives of of all whom it touches.

My friend Bill was indeed a very good man,

a loyal and loving man whose pleasure

it was to build a raft of quiet friendship

upon which we all may safely sit 

until, we too set free, shall fly into those gentle

welcoming shadows and meet with God. 

Naomi