Two Poems for a Late Friend by Robert Demaree

1.

Someone said that we have come
To Golden Pines to die.
My friend said: No—to live.
Well past 90, he played golf,
Wrote and recited
Long strands of verse,
Robert Burns and Robert Frost,
And his own wry take on the world he saw.

Soldier, actor, salesman,
Student, scholar, leader,
Husband, father, teacher, friend,
Adored by the grandchild in us all,
Deeply faithful to his school, his church,
To those who counted on him,
Spinner of yarns born of
A South Carolina growing up,
Child of a minister who held,
As our culture holds,
That he has gone now to a better place
Where he can speak of
Poetry and decency and grace
With those who precede him there.
For us, this place, this firmament
In which we dwell for now,
Has lost a star,
Shines less brightly
Than yesterday.

2.

The afternoon following the service
And the eulogists are at loose ends.
Intense that morning with texts
They wrote and read
To honor the professor,
Their mentor, their poet-friend,
They begin now to settle in
To the deep unendingness of his,
Of anyone’s, being gone.

What do we believe, they wonder,
What should we believe?
Could we be persuaded like Paul,
By Paul,
Is it a long, deteriorating sleep,
Or, one smiles to ask,
Should we play along,
Just in case, faith
A comfort to survivors?
Will we see the light
Jane Kenyon saw?
Guess we’ll find out.



Robert Demaree is the author of four book-length collections of poems, including Other Ladders, published in 2017 by Beech River Books. His poems have received first place in competitions sponsored by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire and the Burlington Writers Club. He is a retired school administrator with ties to North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. Bob’s poems have appeared in over 150 periodicals including Cold Mountain Review and Louisville Review.