Dear Readers,

It is with a sense of bittersweet pleasure that I announce the forthcoming publication of this poem, Chapter 26 of In Memory of Ben, in a thematic poetry anthology that will appear, I suspect, in the spring of 2006. For Ben ...

Chapter 26: Mourning's Reflections

Illusory strength...
quivering knees.
witnessing ...
irreversible
finality.

Near the edge ...
swaying,
clutching a moment's time more
until words enough,
this end a beginning,
reality obscene.

Linger intimate friends,
voices hushed.
sobbing disbelief ...
soon resignation,
what choice ...
really?

Faith ... that Thou art with me,
though alone I remain
but a shadow of time before;
a mound of earth returns to its void,
last glance,
turn to depart
from this ground.

Fading memory
searching ...
mind moments yet recalled.