how beautiful was your smile? As beautiful as your true, blue eyes were true and blue? Too close to call. How wise were you? Were you as wise as the wisdom of your 23, or was it wisdom not of an age? Yes, that’s it. Of your intelligence there is no need to speak, as your thoughts came at us from some lofty peak. How much dignity and how much grace, we loved your humor and your wit and that grin upon your face. What about your courage? Like G said, you were the strongest person he ever knew, and all of us surrounding you knew it too. How vast was your love? Mother love, sister love, brother-friend love, old friend love, lover love; dog and cat love, love of words, poetry and prose; love of food and drink and pub table talks and nature walks, love of all things beautiful: mother, sisters, friendship, K, books. John, your love was vast. And what about your writing? That is where your beauty and wisdom and knowledge and dignity and grace and strength and love found footing, embodiment, became art. The world has lost an inimitable talent. How big was your spirit? So big that when you departed for that place beyond where your father’s embrace awaited and Whiskey was wagging his tail – though they would’ve waited forever, so big that you left enough with all of us and that is what will carry us through on those dark days when we’re missing you, and raising a glass in your honor, and remembering all that you were. That’s how big your spirit was. John, how beautiful was your smile? As beautiful as you.
