Eulogy

March 15, 2005

Marvin Ellis "Red" Pope
June 19, 1918-March 9, 2005

Undulating grass upon a hill, now gone to seed,
glistening, embraced within the morning’s early breeze,
awaiting consummation of the ever growing
ardor of spring.

The tall grass danced for him..

Ever have those gentle waves of green indwelled my soul,
like bonnets, blankets, brushes, just beneath the surface,
soon to spring from emerald depths beneath cornflower skies
to paint the slopes.

Wildflowers bloomed for him..

Red dwells now within those waves, hypnotic in their dance,
laid beneath a gnarled and crooked branch of fading oak;
sentinel which guards his rest and stands with great resolve
beside his grave.

Aging branch sheltered him..

Deeply bowed, and bending ever lower to the ground
to honor him whom life bent low with toil and blessings
as he worked soil and wood and hearts and everything which
came to his hands.

Mighty oak honored him..

Grass and flower, branch and tree; they wrote his eulogy.
‘Tis fit that this should be for a country boy as he:
That at his death, Nature shed a tear and bent her knee;
marked the moment

when she had lost a son.