For Jehanah - written at the Sacred Grounds poetry reading November 17th
The Death of a Woman
Gregory Corso said
the death of a man
was special, mystical.
"spooky" was the word
he used.
But for me what is heavy
is the death of a woman
as long as you knew
that woman when she was
quite young
or saw a picture of her
when she was young.
If you have seen her
when young and you
are a man like other men
when that woman dies,
the part of you that young
image touched, or picture
touched - that part
dies a little too!
At the memorial tonight
someone passed me a photo
of Jehanah as a teenager
in a ballet tutu
her face was radiant
open, yet proud!
she touched me
in my heart!
And at that point
I felt her death
and now there
is a hole in my heart.
We love with our ears
and our arms
and our voices
and our souls.
But love comes IN
at the eye!
I am glad I saw
that photo
of that young lovely child
in her ballet costume.
The death of a woman
is heavy!
-Chris Trian-
By Chris Trian
ReplyDeleteFor Jehanah
I hate the phone!
This was the last thing
and I mean the last thing
I expected to hear today.
I'm not going to recite Jehanah's biography,
or describe her to everybody who knew her.
We all know what she meant to the poetry scene.
But for five years Deirdre and I have been driving her home after the reading. She was always so excited about everybody. So ebullient. Even if it was a dull night or a small crowd.
She hardly ever said anything negative about anybody. She talked about her kids and her grand-kids and room-mates. And her apartment. And the men in her life.
She was sweet, so sweet.
We always waited with the motor running until she got all the way inside her place before driving off. Then we felt warm and good about things all the way home.
She was more like mom
than my mom.
I'll miss her bad.
and she was so excited about getting her new poetry book out.
This is not the first time someone I loved got a book out just before this happened.
Does death wait for poetry?
See you in Avalon, brave lady.