for James Tipton who was the first headliner of Sparrows, Colorado’s Perfomance Poetry Festival who is already sorely missed.
Even poetry has no words for this death your soul rising above the 14th floor where i sit sleepless in Denver your spirit has always risen beyond all borders now drenches my sorrow bones how you came to SPARROWS FIRST featured performer suggesting that you share the stage with Rosemerry a younger songbird who would become most precious to me you brought me honey in jars and on your tongue you understood and could sing what my Brazilian heart only hoped was true even Isabel Allende recognized an alphabet that came straight from your fire belly unadulterated by your genius with words we poets fell in love the the complete rotund of your bellied body like the pied piper you led us to our wish to open our zippers and let the costumes fall onto the floor so that naked we could dance with you that you changed everything is true though I lost you to the mountains of Mexico long before I was ready and we called you back with the enticments we could muster very briefly but my body remembers the thrill of your own poetry trilling again on your tongue still this is another emptiness one that can only be filled with the words you left us written on the bark of other poets'skin not a eulogy...a prayer tearful gratitude for the small pieces of your grand old being we have tasted and become drunk on...your delicious honey
Poet Jude's Poetry 