Reagan

A great man has fallen. Our already thin Age will be all the poorer for it.

May the good Lord have mercy on his soul. May God also grant vision, strength, and worth to those who still walk among the living that new leaders may lead new armies against the evils of our day (for many they are).

I'm rather fond of saying that great men are those who live on in the songs of their heirs; they are the few who provide inspiration and challenge to others. I say they live in song specifically because history and mythology share a common, and somewhat unclear, border. And so I've tried my hand, as clumsy as it may be, to mourn and remember he who deserves to be mourned and remembered.

Raise a cry on the four great winds
East, North, West, and South
Here the sweet paean flow
Forth from every mouth
In our wretched, troubled times
A Great Man has passed
Though his song has ceased to sing
May his echoes last

Few are fit for poet's pen
Song to save their deeds
Most rocks lie forgotten 'midst
Brambles and thick weeds
Monuments of heart and stone
Are the hero's pay
So let tongues and chisels sing
For one fell today

He rode beneath the free man's sun
A rugged man of age
His words enthralled the hearts of men
The weapons of a sage
He set no foot on battlefield
By his hand none were slain
Yet he proved a fell enemy
Communism's Bane

His nation's heart was dark and bleak
Dark forest of malaise
Yet like a shaft of whitest light
He cut through thicket haze
Men's backs were bent, they groaned beneath
The state's oppressive weight
He offered draught of liberty
A liquor sweet and great

For moment brief the winds stand still
And heads nod reverent, bowed
Till voices can take up the song
Sadly, proudly, loud
When four winds blow they now blow free
For youngest boy and lass
A hero's laid his gauntlet down
His mem'ry shall not pass