I have forgotten the reason, forgive me. I have forgotten my name in the language I was born to, forgive me. - Joy Harjo

FIRST MORNING for Shan Goshorn, December 3, 2018 This is the first morning we are without you on earth. The sun greeted us after a week of rain In your eastern green and mountain homelands. Plants are fed, the river restored, and you have been woven Into a path of embracing stars of all colors Now free of the suffering that shapes us here. We all learn to let go, like learning how to walk When we first arrive here. All those you thought you lost now circle you And you are free of pain and heartbreak. Don’t look back, keep going. We will carry your memory here, until we join you In just a little while, in one blink of star time.

Nothing ever stays the same, whether it be poems or humans.

Some of us did not make it. We carried their bodies far away From the cities and set their spirits free. This moment is for them — gives them nourishment Of our love to keep moving toward home.