Cleveland England - a Tribute
They will read my poem and wonder
"Who is this?" But I knew you better
Than any who will search and blunder
Harnessed to their finite, mortal fetter
You are gone, no longer restrained
And cumbered by time's clay palace
The sprite and child in you sustained
Through life, and without carnal malice.
I too laughed in your shadow, you pure
Bringer and giver of joy, humanity
Was excellent in you. Now no more
The pranks and wise and silly empathy
No more the driver of the penny cab
The dreamer, mariner of imagination
The void unfilled, the sad poet must sob
Man's coming and our senseless termination
Was it not for heaven and hope invisible
We reprised in songs again and again
You saw that in your doctrines legible
As a star that writes in light balms of pain
I love the fun in which you held faith
Against the trivial mountains of our life
I shall miss you driving through the gate
Eyes twinkling with tales for the anxious wife.
Flankers has lost a citizen, earth a man
Our children a father of compassion
And love the vivid vassel of its plan.
There was a Cleveland England this emotion
Rises like a river for, there was a friend
And counselor, a listener, and cheery heart
O life, how dread in us that death contend
With you, and we are ever torn apart!
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