! ! Daphne Poem by Michael Shepherd

She has… had… (which
is the more appropriate word
for those who live on so lively
in one’s human memory? …)

that grace of spirit which you’ll know
from reading, seeing acted out,
let’s say, Jane Austen:
at once as serious about life
as any thinker; yet as light-hearted
as she danced life’s play, that
to meet her, was to dance along
with her pure spirit..

a golden girl; I remember her
reading aloud Jane Austen’s letters,
Fanny Burney’s diaries, as if
she and we were living them together;
Shakespeare surely met her like..

she pretended to the belief
(eyes laughing, daring you to disagree..)
that ‘humour’ derives from ‘guna’…
and, she lived it; her soul, deeply serious;
her spirit, dancing to a merry tune;
acting out the play of life; speaking to the heart…

such are the lives that touch our own,
bless them, light them, lighten them;
may I share this memory of her? *


MS

*[guna: in Hinduism, the three ‘qualities’ of
all true goodness; activity; and rest;
continually swaying and swinging
the play of Creation with their imbalance
from first to last]