You are unaware of all this and we know you would be appalled if you knew
To say goodbye so early is not what you wanted
Not what you needed
Not what any of us needed
So 27 is a magic number in rock and roll
an age you overshot by one year -
Like the shooting star, over arcing in the sky
We know what we saw in you.
It’s the difference between Pete Best and Brian Jones.
The difference between Mama Cass and a singer called Alison from Vero Beach, who still sings like she must, still hoping and dreaming.
We can’t work out the algorithm that decides all this.
I hope we never do
It’s not about what is and isn’t true
It’s about how we love each other
And we love you.
There’s a big part of you still with us
Literally
Like the perfect
Reminder
Which is difficult
Though your face
Is still smiling
Though your hair is still shining
It is not you
And we know
We have to understand
How precious clues
Live in everything you touched
Or spoke to
Or lost your temper with
Or made you laugh
And cry
And hope and dream.
What is incredible
Is how in such a short time
You connected with
People and places
And your wanderings
With all the so so human imprints
Kept the best of you
Suspended
In the light
And all your senses reaching out through the earth and the sky and the very tiny stones on the shore where you set your bucket down and began to dig into the sand
If we go deeper and further we join the mycelium,
A vast ocean of connections.
We are grateful for your breath in our hearts
And we will
Think of you
As we knew you
And you knew us.
We know you
We feel you
Close.
Antony Pickthall
May 2925