Harvey!
What can I say about you?
The highest praise --
You dared to be yourself, to be human.
I walk through the "sanctuary" at Personal Counselors,
past your art,
four decades' worth;
new techniques tried --
glue and welding.
I search in your workshop
among drawers and hooks,
with an organization all yours,
for tools to fix one of the ingenious treasures of your mind,
noticing rows of hats and beads
worn at workshops I remember.
Then the long crawl space
I have to hunch over to move through,
filled with shelves of magazines
representing every field,
which you read in spare moments.
It was you who advised us,
"Learn three new things every day."
You went to the library to search out books on
subjects you knew nothing about, to expand your view.
Now I sit in your office,
remembering you in silence.
I see what you accumulated from decades of joyous trips
to thrift stores and rummage sales:
instruments played, broken, and repaired;
glass-grabbers, phone devices.
There are homemade tools, each for a special purpose,
and that rotating "sculpture" that holds it all,
next to your well-worn, comfortable chair
overlooking Seattle.
Yes, you have gone,
but you have left the no limits life that was you.
Chuck Esser
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA