Flash Poem Tribute To Hunter
So. How was thanksgiving? Ours was beautiful. The house was full. My former step-dad John, his sweet wife Betsy, Jim from Flying Dog, Andrew, Natalie, Sue came by and my sister Lydia and my 13 year-old nephew Zack who is now taller than I am…
I haven’t seen John in many years, and it was nice to have someone as smart and funny as Hunter at Owl Farm again. The conversations moved around at top speed to a so-so dinner and roaring fire after a long hike to the Red Cliffs at the top of Owl Farm. We had to transport the 25 chickens and one rooster to their new indoor coop before we could start dinner. (Jesse sat by the fire while everyone ate Turkey — shhh.)
Conversation moved from the molecular structure of sugar and endorphin mimickers to ancient sunlight stored in the form of fossil fuels to poems of William Blake. John is a man of science (and letters) who started the first Generic drug company in Colorado, but also come up with flashes that he converts into poems (Hence, Flash Poem).
I read the poem John emailed to me, aloud, to my friend Cameron, who texted me later and asked me to email it to him because it "won’t leave me alone."
So here it is:
Hunter: Legacy
He moved in words
Stitched together in phrases
Cast into thoughts
Gathered into sayings
Or essays or tomes.
Profound, Angry, Noisy, Gonzo
Brilliant, Gentle, Determined….
Ensconced in dreams
Of a better World.
Costumed in an image
Sensed at first as glory
Then as duty,
Finally as burden.
Going gently into
“That dark night”
Was not his Way.
Though I never met him,
Still I find rapport
As lovers of a World
Descending into madness
Find hope in
Tomorrow’s potentiality.
For Anita: A Tribute to HST by John Gillespie
Thank you John… and thank you Hunter for bringing us all together this weekend.
love,
Anita Thompson
