Zend Elegy

by poet, novelist, playwright, singer/songwriter and member of The Three Roberts,  Robert Priest, 1991.

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Sadly like a flock of rectangular geese
papers migrate 
cutting the air with a red grief 
that Zend is gone so young 
They were due for his many more poems 
he was to give them a face, a shape
a place in time 
but alas his hand has fallen silent like a rose 
too much before its time and these are stories 
that will never be 
brilliance that won't shine 
launched perhaps into the heavens
where beyond paper or substance
only angels will find them 
clinging in rows of stars to the bottom of the rain 
or the top of a cloud 
anything to get down again 
to time and a body 

Robert Priest

​my friend Zend with the head full of popping seeds
walking around with his heart going bad on him
just laughing and reading his poems right to the end 

in the height of his powers 
the heart was weakest
in the full spring of his mind
he entered winter 
darkness came and took 
Zend away by the leg
his poor heart a dead weight it couldn't carry 
so it took just the spirit 
laughing and chanting high over the sad rooftop of his house
 
leaving only the gravity of his works and love
to draw us here together 
over the page 

​(written on the publication of Robert Zend's posthumous book, Daymares)