“…Waves, Marina, we are ocean! Depths, Marina, we are sky!
Earth, Marina, we are earth, a thousand times spring.
We are larks whose outburst of song
Fling them to the heaves.”
~~~Rainer Maria Rille, “Elegy to Marina”

For Barbara

My friend,
you breathed music from your flute
made fresh the air.
The notes still float on the breezes,
after all, where could they have gone?
They still play on each breath we take.
You, who seem silenced,  
are heard  (your laughter!) in our memories,
felt in the air we
inhale and exhale, in time to your
breath-created music
and follows the rhythm of our pulsing hearts.
Together we are in concert
our voices rise and fall,
and you remain sung, 
yes, you remain
for after all, where could you go?
The starry roof of the earth
covers us all
we are held safe 
with you as if in a perfect boat on the ocean
as waves rise and fall like notes
coming and going 
in tune with continuous creation
where we find you still.