Each That We Lose

Oil on Reclaimed Panel, 2019

(sold)

EACH that we lose takes part of us;

A crescent still abides,

Which like the moon, some turbid night,

Is summoned by the tides.

Emily Dickinson

EACH THAT WE LOSE

In the stillness…

In the silence of recollection,

And the deep and dark

Soul of my brain…

In the inner inner of me,

And you,

In the leftover membrane

Of a consciousness of knowing,

In the deep and dark

Soul of our brains…

There lives a light of the lost,

A living presence,

A nearly hidden new moon,

And a whole earthscape of civilization,

A rich and enduring part of the being we’ve become.

Each that we lose

Lives on.

Each that we lose

Is a distant spark in the dark night,

Is left light, lost light,

Love light,

Now and forever.

And yet, somehow…

Each that we lose

Is truly and forever also lost.

Your departure leaves me agog

At the vast and empty spaces

Of cosmos and Being above and beyond.

Roger Straw

Ekphrastic Event

Art of a Community, Arts Benicia

February 13, 2019