Friday, April 18, 2014

On The Passing of My Father

"Respect the Child.
Wait and see the new product of Nature.
Nature loves analogies, but not repetitions.
Respect the Child.
Be not too much his parent.
Trespass not on his solitude." 
                                                                   Ralph Waldo Emerson
My Mother & Father visit me in Senegal, 1983
 
 
A Prayer for My Father
by Robert Bly
 
                                                                   Your head is still
                                                                     restless, rolling
east and west.
                                                                   That body in you
                                                                   insisting on living
                                                                     is the old hawk
                                                                  for whom the world
                                                                         darkens.
                                                                       If I am not
                                                               with you when you die,
                                                                       that is just.

 
                                                                     It is all right.
                                                             That part of you cleaned
                                                                   my bones more
                                                                   than once. But I
                                                                     will meet you
                                                                  in the young hawk
                                                                      whom I see
                                                                       inside both
                                                                    you and me; he
                                                                        will guide
                                                              you to the Lord of Night,
                                                                  who will give you
                                                                      the tenderness
                                                                   you wanted here.
                                           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls-KWtuJeYk