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Passing The Breach

THE VERY REVEREND DAVID B. COLLINS  
DECEMBER 18th 1922 - DECEMBER 29th 2016  
(a villanelle on the passing of my father)  
 
Slow laid, that gentle good night’s reach,  
Whose hand was stayed with you half home,  
Now pass beyond the next realm’s breach.  
 
The passing time, true lessons teach,  
And standing ‘ere what we become,  
Slow laid, that gentle good night’s reach.  
 
Beyond all love contained in speech,  
The stars, your hymns, the heavens hum,  
Now pass beyond the next realm’s breach.  
 
Though gone far from our eyes’ beseech,  
In form alone, you did succumb.  
Slow laid, that gentle good night’s reach.  
 
Still part of you is held in each,  
To Him the one, the rest, the sum.  
Now pass beyond the next realm’s breach.  
 
You now from God’s true pulpit preach,  
Your starlight shines to light the gloam’.  
Slow laid, that gentle good night’s reach,  
Now pass beyond the next realm’s breach.  
 
Geoff's Note: this is a villanelle in iambic tetrameter.  I chose this in particular because one of the most famous villanelle's is Dylan Thomas' "DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT," on the passing of his father.  
 
Picture Credit: My father as a Lt.J.G. United States Navy, 1944.
Written by Hepcat61 (geoff cat)
Published | Edited 13th Jan 2017
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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