For David Berman

I have no claims to his passion.
Though I have full enough of my own.
I have been made affected by his death.
And I know I am not alone.

He had a sterling silver vision.
He had immaculate precision.
He cut through the marrow.
To get to the sorrow.

David Berman felt the truth.
But it made him a recluse.
We must never forget to love.
Even when it is refused.

Yet we cannot love so passionately
That we become less than our own true self.
That is the great dilemma.
We cannot put that book back on the shelf.