Remembrance

This should have been posted yesterday. Seven years ago on February 12th a dear childhood friend passed away. My friend Chase died just shy of his 20th birthday. He had the sweetest and most beautiful smile. He will forever be missed.

A very close mutual friend, N, wrote the below in honor of Chase.



I heard news of you--
that you'd left this world
and my heart was heavy and grim.
But remembering you now
my view has changed somehow,
and my heart is full to the brim.
It's a strange mix of mirth and sadness--
a little confusion, a little madness
until I thought of you leaping to my arms
through the air.
And I see your spirit soaring still,
but it's gone from this earth now; there's no empty ill--
To drag down my head with sorrow and pain
for certain that I will see you again.
I will not cry or sit regretting,
as if my mortal power could keep the sun from setting.
But to quote the poet Dylan Thomas with simplicity,
"Time held me green and dying though I sang in chains like the sea."
You fell asleep my friend and then awoke
on a strangely familiar paradise shore;
And for this age on earth I must say goodbye.
Goodbye, my love, but not forevermore.