More Than a Memory

More Than A Memory

(For Gene)

I remember so clearly 

First days of friendship 

School days and discoveries 

Like it was yesterday 

Now you are gone

And I wonder…

Does a forest remember?

After a storm

In calm 

after the  storm

Even though it is broken

Torn down and fallen

Trees returning

Standing tall once again

More than a memory

Former glory

Nature restored.

Is that how life is?

After a heartache 

 When you are battered and torn

From the inside out

You wonder

Can I live again?

And I look yonder…

Does a farm field remember?

Winter wheat resting under blanketed snow

Spring hail in a thunder storm

Even though it is flooded

Washed away, and swollen

Corn returns with tall tassels 

More than a memory

Former glory

Bounty returns.

Is life like that?

After the mourning

Taps calling

A volley for your service

Finally resting 

In a garden of stone…

I wonder

 Can we live again?

Saying goodbye 

 Brother, soldier, and  friend. 

More than a memory

A smile

A laugh

Sound of your voice 

Echoing inside of myself

And I wonder…

Does your spirit remember?

D.A. Wittler 5/13/20

 

A Few Thoughts: Untitled

A Few Thoughts: Untitled

Don Maclaine wrote a song about Vincent Van Gogh. Have you heard it? Have you listened to your heart? Can you see today a little more clearly? Does yesterday even matter any more? 

Now, do you care about tomorrow?

 Vincent said, " Sorrow is a small beginning." I am beginning to realize that I cling too tightly to sorrow these days, yet, there is hope come the morning where light dispells darkness, and awareness changes doubt to reason. But we don't need light to see, we only need a heart worth feeling, and no thought of what we are suffering, only that we become enlightened a little more on our journey through the suffering rather than becoming stuck within it, and sinking. We must rise above it, and realize that love never ceases as life does; it merely changes as the seasons, and we grow with each ring we earn like the tree outside our window, beautiful, tall, and free!

In Memoriam

04:30:

In Memoriam: Eugene Arthur Sadler; 

Son, Brother, Soldier, Friend!

Can't  sleep knowing I'll  be taking a man I have known for over forty years to his final resting place in just a few short hours...

But the worst of the storm has passed, 

Those dreadful tears have done their worst, 

And the pent up rage of knowing

Becomes my saving grace...

To all who are lamenting

In darkest hours like these

Those lost days of youthful exuberance

Rekindle in a wink of an eye

With every re-telling beside the flames

In a camp fire come morning

Becomes a spark for a new day dawning

As the embers glow

We shall remember nothing is lost

Only time we could have spent

And witnessed a slower decline.

So live as he would wish

And hope as he now knows

That we shall all gather once again

Lift a glass

And laugh at all our suffering

From the past.

Amen

D.A. Wittler 5/9/20

Reflections Amidst a Pandemic

A few thoughts: 

Reflections Amidst a Pandemic:

 (A work in progress)

I think about the miles 

these dogs have trod, 

and a flag unfurled 

I dream about a time 

of great upheaval,

and a people longing for freedom.

 

I feel the absence of a soldier

in the field, 

and a mother's prayers uplifted. 

I hear a gentle chimming 

of the hours, 

and the chorus of a windswept symphony

On a loney journey echoing;

It's origin dangling from a front porch.

I know loss,

and a friend struggling

Just to keep his heart beating

Silent faces peering 

from behind fear

Of a pandemic spreading.

In all this 

I know faith continuing

Flags still waving,

and a people clinging to each other

Proclaiming:

"This too shall pass."

D.A. Wittler 5/3/20