On reading of the death of the poet Maya Angelou (4 April 1928 – 28 May 2014).
Wherefore goes the music when the song is done?
The dancer has left the stage, and an emptiness permeates the room
The audience is silent in its admiration
Lacking the lights to illuminate the memories
Darkness has fled as well, and now only words remain
Words that filled the hearts and souls of all who read them
To say goodbye – to speak that terrible word
To quiver in the flesh of mourning – to hear the silence of the bird
This then is the beginning of your ascension
At the door of eternity – we paint the beginning
Let the dawn paint for you in dusk an American Olympus
You, our muse and prophet – I salute your dance
It is all in the eyes when the feet touch the parquet
A gliding across the negative space to brush aside convention
Each word you spun was a mathematical love
The equations you composed were a balance of pain and joy
An echo of Eve and Lilith – you were Maya, the Goddess of the Moon
And illuminated by reflected light, you enchanted the heart
The curtain has come down on the stage
The dancers are all getting dressed
I look for you in the fitting rooms of our lost voices
And the emptiness fills me with despair
And then I close my eyes and see your dance of words
The stage is once again full of love, and I am satisfied.
