Facing us on a backward chair
You recalled a loss
Many years past

And the anger so naturally there
But unlike many of us
Un-naturally gone

Your commitment
To the often unseen hand of goodness
Like the forgiveness of a branch laden
with snow

you said the role of a teacher
is to create a classfull of critics
a merry Socratic band

we drank the thoughts
of nature and philosophy
and spent days

melting our lives
into the murmur of quiet back water
and stony bluff side

your message always
to never doubt
the world is full of love
and the magic of living things
I can see you now

Confident that whatever happens
The good in the world
Will pace ahead, relentless

And every part of you
Every part of us and the world
Is divine

Especially the stars
Twinkling down through water