News of Bernie Clark's death reached me when I was in rural Japan. He was the first of my ggeneration to die. I could never tell when my sadness would capture me. Yet I was comforted by the Rune of Grief: "Know that even the deepest grief, when fully felt, will lessen and soften over time. There is a calm to be found on the far side of grief, a peace unknown to those who have yet to grieve." In the deep of winter I wrote:
Flowering plum branches
in a street vendor's arms.
O how I miss you.
