When great trees fall

rocks on distant hills shudder,

lions hunker down

in tall grasses,

and even elephants

lumber after safety.

When great trees fall

in forests,

small things recoil into silence,

their senses

eroded beyond fear

When great souls die,

the air around us becomes

light, rare, sterile.

We breathe, briefly.

Our eyes, briefly,

see with

a hurtful clarity.

Our memory, suddenly sharpened,

examines,

gnaws on kind words

unsaid,

promised walks

Never taken.

Great souls die and

our reality bound to 

them, takes leave of us.

Our souls,

dependent upon their 

nurture,

now shrink, wizened.

Our minds, formed 

andinformed by their 

radiance, fall away.

We are not so much maddened 

as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of 

dark, cold 

caves.

And when great souls die,

after a period peace blooms,

slowly and always

irregularly. Spaces fill

with a kind of 

soothing electric vibration.

Our senses, restored, never 

to be the same, whisper to us.

They existed. They existed.

We can be. Be and be 

better. For they existed.