I’m keeping vigil just now, and I remembered a poem I wrote many years ago. It was the title poem of my 2005 pamphlet Pearl, and although it wasn’t written about death, it’s fitting.
Pearl
What sends you over your brink –
A final shove or ceaseless prodding?
Are you hounded to it, coaxed,
Alarmed or caught off guard?
The end’s the same.
Flailing arms, sky, chasm –
You fall, a shell of significance
At your heart, a pearl.
Jay Whittaker, all rights reserved.
Jay Whittaker 