Saturday, October 9, 2010

Remembering John Lennon


image from bandswallpapers.com

I was sipping 
warm mocha 
when my eyes
idly glanced
at the front page
of yesterday's
news.
"John Lennon
would have been
70 today,"
I read,
a fact
my brain
simply
refused.

Not possible,
for it wasn't
very long ago,
that he was
young and cool
and, while never  cool,
I , too, was young.
Most of life still
stretched before me,
with hope
my heart was strung.
I had time to waste
and more,
for the slow-moving
hand of time
to bring me
what it had
in store.

That hand has
speeded up now
and I need to
readjust
my vision
to the sight
of John Lennon
and I
teetering
on walkers,
or swinging
a mean cane.
The rockin' we'd
be doing
would be in chairs,
and all the songs
of love and pain,
all the heavy sighs,
would be about
how damned fast
this life goes by.

But John,
I still sing with you
when I have
your albums on:
War Is Over
and Give Peace
a Chance.
My heart still
constricts
and I 
can't believe
you're gone,
as you sing
your songs
to which
I used to dance,
with all that came
to be
just waiting
in the wings
that fateful day
that would 
whisk you
fast away.

You would have been
a really cool seventy,
and I am 64.
(I'm still not cool.)
And I swear
that it is
only an eyeblink
since I wandered
through Gastown
like a happy fool,
with my brown jacket
with the fringe
and my long red hair.
Your music
was playing
everywhere
and we shared
a dream,
the world
imagined
peace,
(You were
not
the only one),
when Blackbird
sang in
the dead of night
and all the lovely
out of sight
tomorrows
were still
shining
so bright,
not yet
passed and
full of loss
and
sorrow.

I live in a world
sadder
for the loss of
your clear voice,
and war is everywhere
more than it ever was.
But Peace is still
a choice.

Beam us some
from where
you're watching,
lonely dreamer,
whose music
recalls
those days
we thought
would never
end.
Your birthday
reminds me
of what I am
too
well aware:
there are fewer
tomorrows
than yesterdays
now,
my friend.

12 comments:

  1. Sherry,
    Thank you for writing such a warm tribute to John Lennon.
    I felt so sad as I read your words.
    I still remember the disbelief I felt, when I heard that he was gone from us.
    Eileen

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  2. He is missed, no doubt about it. Impossible to believe he would have been seventy. I was young when he died, but it seems not so very long ago at all. Everyone was so shocked.

    John Lennon belongs, really, to my older siblings' generation (I am youngest by nine years) but it was me who took him to heart. I was watching a show on History channel last night about hippies...I think I must be their spiritual child.

    Wonerful tribute, Sherry!

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  3. This is absolutely stunning, Sherry. I defy anyone to read it without tearing up! The world is full of angry, terrifying people, but Lennon reminds us that there are enough good people, filled with philanthropy, to make the years we spend together worth while. Thanks for sharing these thoughts with us - they made my day.

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  4. I can't believe he would be 70! I love 'Working Class Hero' - and obviously tons more :) I love this. xx

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  5. So hard to believe John Lennon would have been 70 years old. For me he is 'forever young.' I too still sing with his music.

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  6. Sherry
    Oh, how I loved John and I was living in Manhattan that horrible day. I remember it so clearly.
    Pamela

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  7. Oh imagine being in New York that day! That was the last straw for me, after JFK, and Martin Luther King and Bobby..........John's assassination was just too much. Argh.

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  8. 30 years after his death, john lennon's music lives on. this is a beautiful tribute to a great music icon. the world continues to miss him. he had given so much of himself both in life and in death.

    your poem touched my heart, sherry. he was a great loss.

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  9. what a wonderful tribute...i grew up on he beatles though they were well before my time...so sad a voice snuffed short...and time does fly so fast these days...

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  10. Oh Sherry this is wonderful! What a warm, human, well written tribute.

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  11. Sherry this is such a lovely tribute to a lovely life...that i feel certain lives on....thank you so much for remembering and sharing! :-)

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  12. Ah, Sherry, this is beautiful and right in keeping with John's philosophy. He was truly one of a kind & I never tire of listening to his music & mellow voice.
    Do you know this quote of his about poets - one of my favorites:
    ‎"My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all."

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