Gone but not ... remembered?

Well over a hundred folks attended Marie's memorial service. She was well liked and well connected. In February, 2003, less than a dozen came to the memorial service I led for my best friend in Portland, Ger Moran. He was retired, a bachelor, a reclusive poet, estranged from his only sister. Moral: if you want a big funeral, have a lot of friends and family.

But Ger didn't want a big funeral. He had a very Eastern philosophy of life. If he's disappointed, it's because his work is so ignored. I edited a posthumous collection of his writings called
Midnight Cabaret: the Writings of Ger Moran but not many have bought it. (Amazon also slapped the wrong title & cover on it, which doesn't help and which is taking forever to correct. The link shows the correct cover.) Ger is gone but probably not remembered by many. The fate of more than we realize, I expect. Here are a couple of poems by Ger:

GESTURE

If I could come before you
With the simplest of miming
Gestures, I would, indeed I would.

This action with pen in hand,
Black ink on white paper,
Appears such a dim sign.

At this moment I realize
The striking clarity of gestural
Power as transcendent--

...and here I sit with these
wanting strokes called words,
groping in the dark to reach you.


BON VOYAGE

Enjoy the world
Because it's yours.
You are the world
And the world is you.

If I die before H, she has instructions about my preferences concerning whatever memorial service may happen. My real memorial is in Special Collections at the University of Oregon Library and online at Ibiblio (University of North Carolina). I'll still have a shot at communication with readers after I'm gone. A more personal legacy than this is more limited. I'm fine with that. It's the future readers I want most. I want some of my words to keep living. I want my words to inspire someone to write their own words (as I have in the past).

I haven't forgotten Ger -- but I'm not sure how many of us are out there.