R.I.P. Donald Hall, poet

Of Love and Loss
by Michael Romani

Sharing a moment of barnyard credibility
The poet defended ordinary language and sensibility
As the irresistible fodder of interpretation
His poet's life as much his journey as his destination

Reveling in surprising insights of observation
Here in an era of debased and weaponized decapitation
His desire was to fill our heads instead with confirmation
With and through the ordinary idioms of our nation

Nostalgic impulses captured with a directness of speech
Kept the collaborations and contradictions of life in our reach
Mournful in its passing, a cliché becomes expressed radiance
At the hands of a wordsmith even in this age of decadence

This is the real world in which losses are often gains
And the verities of life are what often keep us sane
This confusion of reality rendered into our best understanding
Is given to us in a constellation of sound that is not demanding

Melodies of departure linger in our heads for years
Poems that play like songs of laughter are often mixed with tears
Like an elegy for the living, always taking and often giving
Provide us the best of life from our God forgiving

Strangers held together in a murmur of resemblance
Straining against the world in their words of brilliance
Quiet claims are made in lines of understated eloquence
Offering their comfort rather than screaming their significance

Growing old is to lose everything  in a sort of affirmation
As we meld into that nothing of life's ending confirmation
That our universe is vested in shaping and construction
Far more in its creative force than in our destruction

(c) June 29, 2018  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved