ON A SILVER SCREEN

ON A SILVER SCREEN

My Son! You are searching so hard

for Life's answers.

You won't find them where you've

been looking!

Listen to me:

Seeking answers of my own one day,

I took a walk into the faded-blue depths

of an old man's eyes.

I sat in the sunny meadow of his soul

where Time was only a teacher--

not a ravager.

There, on Time's silver screen,

like the everchanging clouds in our own galaxy,

were the shapes of the knowledge I'd been seeking.

I watched the epic of his lifetime

reeled out into the forms of comedy and tragedy.

I listened to distant thunderheads,

and felt the salty rain falling gently upon the meadow.

But...closer and stronger

was the healing laughter that followed,

melting away the storm.

My Grandfather's last gift to me--

and his greatest!

I wrote this poem many years ago in honor of my Grandfather, who passed away from a brain tumor. While we were apart for many years (I lived in California and he lived here in Ohio), when I returned to Ohio in 1973 we became very close, and we had a lot of good times together. When he was in his final days in the hospital, I spent time with him, just sitting there beside him, thinking about the wise things he'd said to me before he became ill. One of the last things he did, when he hadn't been responding to anyone, was to squeeze my hand when I told him I loved him.

The first paragraph of the poem was a reference to my own son who was having a hard time during that period when we first moved back to Ohio from his native California. He was not happy with me for taking him away from all his friends, and didn't understand why...or, maybe he did understand at some level...but, hated it anyway.

In my way, I was trying to tell him that it would be okay....and it was.