OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is a poem written by a former Orillian now living in B.C. in response to the passing of the legendary Gordon Lightfoot, who passed away on Monday evening at the age of 84.
In Memory of Gordon
A quiet spirit of passion has taken its leave,
the life of a folk minstrel we solemnly grieve,
the season of changes, the bird is in flight,
the Oriole of Orillia, gently passed in the night,
Over the years he wove such a calendar of song,
each a place in our hearts, many as if my own,
deep feelings of nostalgia, we must surely contend,
this loss more than the passing of a personal friend.
Far more than a songster he had a soul which spoke,
with a calming presence and verses which invoke,
the need to show thought and to others compassion,
to share a love of this country with genuine passion.
Similar to his name, just like the lighthouses of old,
a presence was there through the dark and the cold,
simple words of existence, of assurance, in a story,
subtle variations of human life, veiled in allegory.
When I heard “I wonder how the old folks are tonight”,
This was a sting to the conscience, and he was right,
So as if directed, no commanded, I would pick up phone,
Summoned by guilt and by Gordon, I’d call back home.
And we now wonder “what tales his thoughts could tell,”
A heart of this town or “a ghost from a wishing well”
No longer to this voice of emotion, of feelings, of pain,
For he is now “on his way, in the early morning rain.”
“Through the fragments of dream shattered sleep”
Oh! Son of Orillia our feelings for you run so deep,
As we “turn back the pages to the times I love best.”
Gordon Lightfoot now gone to a well deserved to rest.
“Does anyone know — where the love of God goes,
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?"
And “ later that night, when HIS light went out of sight”
Thank you, Gordon.
Poem written and submitted by Colin Couper
