On the Death of a Poet Friend
(in memory of  Mary Jane Helrich)

A pageant all her own,
Like those sailing ships in dreams.
Our seas parted for her alone
Whose gentle knives hidden in reams
Of verse charmed us, taught us how
To challenge the worser fates.
I can hear her now,
Rhyming at heaven's gates.


14 June 2004
Stephen Kobasa