Remembering Tim McLaughlin — It Has Been One Year
Tim passed away suddenly November 1, 2023. All of us at Maiwa have been left overwhelmed by the loss. We lived amongst Tim’s creative life. He mentored us. He inspired us. He helped us grow.
We lost a gentle giant of a man. His wit and play on words was exceptional. His quiet intellect was an inspiration.
Amongst Tim's vast writings and journals we found this poem and we would like to share it with you today.
When I am Gone
When I am gone
I shall miss weather
most
The thickening sky before snowfall
The sharp crack in the air
of an autumn morning
So often
I do not recognize
the shift in seasons
until I inhale the change
startlingly subtle
And then I know for certain
even a season can grow old
These also I shall miss:
The peculiar weather of trees
how they seem at times
to be playing the light
The dappled shades
complex as memory
Oh to be held by shadow
and feel the sun
When I am gone
I shall miss even the air itself
Its solace
its quiet and becoming
And
The summer storms
The way rain empties streets
and slicks the pavement
The anger winds make
blasting through branch and limb
tearing at all that is
with glorious desperation
The way
water drops
halo evening lamp posts
turning them to waiting night-saints
I will miss
your hand
cool in the rain
drawn away and cuffed in a sleeve
I shall miss the earliest of mornings
The quiet pleasure
of being awake before others
like a thief in the bank vault
untended
and alone with the secrets
My time ultimately like this:
only a beautiful
brief reconnaissance
Into the world
My time ultimately like this:
a dream of flying in which
I swim through the atmosphere
through all forms of weather
all the while
knowing it to be impossible.
– Tim McLaughlin
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