"The Wave" by David Whyte

You arrived as a ripple of change emanating
from an original, unstoppable,
memory, a then made now,
entirely yourself, found now in the world,
now as creator of that world.
You were a signature written in sand
taken by the ocean and scattered
to another wave form, your disappearance
only made more beautiful
by the everyday arrival of a tide
where my voice can still join yours,
hungering for the fall of water,
so that walking the reflected sand,
I set myself to learn by your going,
knowing across death’s wide ocean,
the ultimate parallel to friendship.

(In Memoriam: John O’Donohue)
From Pilgrim: Poems by David Whyte
©2012 David Whyte