I already posted this in the comments over on arcaedia‘s journal, but I thought it deserved a post of its own. We’ll miss you Johnny.
I was reading through many great stories about meeting and playing with Johnny over on yesterday’s digest of IRTRAD-L, and I saw this, which I’m forwarding along:
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I received this from Bill Watkins, writer, poet (The Errant Apprentice is one of his best), and long time friend of Johnny’s. Says Bill “pass it on – Johhny would like that.”
The Silent Fiddle
He blazed across the heavens like a meteor
Whilst we earth-bound mortals gazed in wonder.
His flight on the swift wings of an ancient tune
Now bears his soul to the great hall of his forebears.
Majestic is the legacy of this man of mischievous might
Fierce his renown – a champion never bested.
I knew him when he was but a child
And watched that child become a man
Yet in that man a child remain.
To play, to play, always to play. A bow seldom still.
Those who loved him are legion, enjoined for now in one distress Reaching
across the globe, lover to lover, friend to friend.
Time is now for the fiddle to lie silent
The raised glass and merry jibe will come soon enough.
Many tongues shall sing the lament – the song of passing
The flowers of the forest are a’ weed away.
And we shall tell stories of how he lived, laughed and loved
And he shall live on, forever the impish youth in the warmth of our
imaginings.
Those who seed the earth with such splendor can never die.
It’s always springtime somewhere.
Take your ease, Johnny – have one on me.
Lessened we are for your passing, but ennobled we remain
Able to smile and say, “You were my friend.”
.
