"Then rock the boat with a party"

Water Music

My ashes soon will join the sea
I always enjoyed the beach
And passed my Sea Stones out for free
Such as I could afford to
And though I subtly sought to teach
Daresay I never bored you

I was not much but what I was
Brought us more credit than blame
I hope you will remember me
And smile when you say my name

My reach fulfilled its grasp because
My nights and days were the same
I saw the stars in squadrons storm
To scrub the sky and scour me
I sang the sea informed by form
And felt its waves empower me

My own Ash Wednesday sacrament
Will settle to the seabed
The equipoise we spoke and meant
In all those poems we read

As death from life is different
I will go to sea instead
And when I do remember please
That joy of understanding
When we shared poems such as these
Hearts pure and undemanding

Beneath the lamplight late at night
There was magic in the air
We spoke our hearts and heard them right
Now to be heard everywhere

Keep those old chewed-up manuscripts
I gave you and think of me
Poets like us are not for crypts
But to be part of the sea

My life your love our sea as one
In true triangularity
Will meet in the seaweed's tangle
Red seaweed dusted grey with me
Where jellyfish streamers dangle
Then rock the boat with a party

If when you pour some of me blows away
Sea breeze will breathe me in and it will say:

"We have a taste for poetry
As he who went to sea at last
Borne on my breath and carried free
Into the future from the past
The elements in harmony"

The sea will sing informed by form
Eternity empower me
The stars will swirl down in a swarm
Bright fireflies to devour me
As glorious life victorious loves me free

My beautiful children all I love you so
Celebrate your lives and mine when I must go

+Steven Curtis Lance



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