For Saiom (Nellie) Shriver
1942-2023

"Hands that serve are holier than lips that pray."
Sai Baba

Your torrent of words
are alight upon the ages
now and what is
left shining
after the spirit
surmounts the
solid-looking world

is what we always were . . .

before the parading
and the clamor.

To you
love was everywhere
and everything—
something you
breathed, and
form:

that was just a
costume needed
in this
awful, dizzying,
beautiful saga,

but you wore it
like a diva,
tossing grandeur and
real peace out
there into
the dark . . .

And yes,
they watched,
sometimes befuddled,
sometimes enraged,
but never, ever
bored,
and some even
learned how
to care.

Don't worry,
ever-living fire,
all your fans,
furry and human
and all
sorts of things
that ventured into
this world,

don't weep.


We cherish life
as you
performed it
in a world
so much better
because you
were here.


Patricia Joan Jones


Author's Note:

Saiom was a well-known, long-time poet on several poetry sites.