March 2018
Robert Walton
dragonlemontree@sbcglobal.net
I taught at San Lorenzo Middle School in King City, California for thirty-six years before retiring in June of 2006. Phyllis, my wife of 42 years, and I still reside in King City.  I am a life-long rock-climber and mountaineer.  I've made numerous ascents in the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite, though my home crags are in Pinnacles National Monument. Many of my climbing stories have been published over the years.  One, Three's a Crowd, was produced as a radio play and broadcast on KUSF in 2006 and later made it onto PBS.  Please visit my website at: http://chaosgatebook.wordpress.com/

​First Parting
 
​
Candles smolder on the funeral eve — 
A prayer ripples midnight silence — 
I rise from scented darkness and take my leave.
 
At the church’s door winter lifts my eyes
To stars whose ends precede beginnings,
To myriad galaxies’ shining surprise — 
 
Slender, azure arms of light brush my face,
Greet me, charm me, coax me, enfold me
With not drear solace, but star-blessed embrace,
 
Wordless words from the deeps of time
Lift grief and sketch final symmetry — 
For death is not love’s end but its rhyme.
© 2018 Robert Walton
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