Welcome to the July Poem of the Month.
This month’s poem is a sad dedication to my college friend Joe Montano, who unexpectedly passed away this week at the age of 47.
Joe was working as the Northern Virginia Regional Representative for Senator Tim Kaine, and we should have seen Joe’s smiling face with Kaine at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia as his boss accepted the party’s nomination as the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee. Instead, we are left with a somber emptiness at his absence.
Joe and I attended George Washington University together, and we spent the summer of 1991 in DC with 24 other amazing GWU students as part of the very first Colonial Inauguration Staff, the university’s summer student orientation program. Over the summer, we because a very close-knit group of friends, and that summer was filled with laughter, fun and the forging of so many deep friendships.
It is not surprising that as I’ve read the many tributes to Joe, they all talk about his passion, his kindness and his smile. Kaine said of Joe:
“That proud patriotic American, proud patriotic Virginian Democrat was about outreach and bridge building and bringing people together.” He added: “We will remember him by his positive energy, tireless work ethic, and infectious smile.”
I will smile as I remember his laughter and our friendship, and I will mourn that both now live only in my memory.
Rest in peace my friend. Your tireless effort to make the world a better, happier place is done. We will carry the load from here.
Dirge Without Music
By Edna St. Vincent Millay
(1892 – 1950)
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
