Sorry to interrupt my Philadelphia Story, but I wanted to post this “Elegy” by poet Theodore Roethke in memory of my friend, Shea, who passed away recently.  I will miss him dearly.

Elegy by Theodore Roethke

1

Should every creature be as I have been,

There would be reason for essential sin;

I have myself an inner weight of woe

That God himself can scarcely bear.

2

Each wills his death: I am convinced of that;

You were too lonely for another fate.

I have myself an inner weight of woe

That Christ, securely bound, could bear.

3

Thus I; and should these reasons fly apart,

I know myself, my seasons, I KNOW.

I have myself one crumbling skin to show;

God could believe: I am here to fear.

4

What you survived I shall believe: the Heat,

Scars, Tempests, Floods, the Motion of Man’s Fate;

I have myself, and bear its weight in woe

That God that God leans down His heart to hear.