Eulogy

Eulogy Sing eulogy, O wind, Crying out the sorrow, Howling deep within your zephyr, For branches where you once entwined Your restless fingers Into a joyful melody of rustling boughs In lyric song; Hear now, as you pass, only memories Floating on the air in search of forest arms Where once the lullaby of giants Spread like peace at eventide Over every creature who daily felt The vibrant, primal heartbeat At the mystic center sustaining life. Sing eulogy, O wind, When you rush across the empty mountainside, Where once the titans of the century welcomed you With lofty grace as you orchestrated Their symphony of seasons come, Your searching swell frantically seeks for Playmates of a thousand years; Your cannot reach out with your arms To lift the sparrows and the robins, Nesting in their wombs, Upon your wings Nor cool the squirrels hiding beneath their skirts Of rough, red bark; The hillsides where you sang with grandeur Lay as hushed and as chilled as marble tombs That decorate man’s passing; Death walked upon these paths Leaving in deep chilling footprints barren hills to raise their Voices in a wailing rage Of mournful sighs on desolated plains and mountain slopes. Sing eulogy, O wind, Look upon the sun warmed earth, Your friends with whom you shared the secret words Of your song, Who whispered with your every murmur By lifting up their giant faces In gratitude for the winter’s gift of sleep And summer’s rain, Lie still; Your shout of mourning unheard, Death closes up their ears to all But it’s eternal dirge And though you long to caress Their lifeless forms, They cannot feel your loving hands Upon their brows In a final gesture of farewell Before they leave their forest arbor Still abounding with their perfume - The myrrh of burial for guardians Whose life protected life Where shadows intermingled. Sing eulogy, O wind, Then weep, No resurrection for companions Until the earth revolves A thousand times Around the sun When they repeat refrains of joy In creation’s pristine voice With you – With woodland peers – Their voices silenced here to ears That heard their chanting And now must carry in the silence Of their souls A seed of memory To tell the future’s child A fable tale of giants Passing now away. Old growth redwoods now gone.