“If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousands of miles away. This responsiveness…was an extraordinary gift of hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.”–F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
……………………………………………………………………………….
Beacon
He was a light
they had wanted to be
close to, even briefly
in passing.
A certain remoteness
and glow they had
hoped to ‘reel in’
like some precious catch.
In those ephemeral seconds
they had, indeed, connected
or seen a glimpse
of their other possibilities,
their own imagined lives.
They had sensed a music
of the spheres from afar,
the pleasure of presence
and the splashy warmth
of intimacy.
It was all that he was
and had been to
many a passing boat or craft:
a beacon by which to gauge
their own relative depths,
light, desires and love.
Their own best gifts
of self.
(previously published Nov. 12, 2013)