Felino Soriano Tribute

emain. The loved ones who grieve. It is the absence that troubles, for nothing ever
replaces. Sometimes the answer is wait, and often it is no. Finality is the most painful
tool and hope the most heavy. Yet love remains, it whispers softly. Love is the tears and
love is the silence. Loss of a battle makes no less a hero. For those bravest travel
where we cannot yet follow. Prayers be hushed and in peace sleep.
PAYING RESPECTS
I knew you, through others. Everyone in the poetry community loved you. How they
spoke of you in respect and admiration.
I knew you, through emails. A few times we exchanged words, the creative exchange of
artists working at a project together.
I knew you, through your words, the music inside them, the dance and the carousel.
To know someone at the periphery feels strange. I sense the light we’ve lost, by the
dark cocooning all around. It wraps all the words anyone could ever give in shrouds and
lets the ones you left us shine the brighter.
Editor’s note: “Prayer for Strength” was previously published in The Song Is August 3,
2016.