Happy New Year! For the past several years, I’ve been writing homages to a wide range of people who have passed this year. The verses are in no particular order and some of them are well-known and many were unknown to me, but all of them led fascinating lives.
These verses are not meant to be read in one sitting but something to look on occasion and as a opportunity to reflect on these amazing lives and to consider our own brief time on this planet.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
dcaraher@gmail.com
2022 – R.I.P
This year my death was not to be
Though some who left meant a lot to me
But I am so relieved you’re not to see
“I knew you well, Democracy”
I sorta tend toward glass half empty
(While longing for a quart of whiskey)
And while the polls remained quite unfriendly
And a bet on sanity seemed kinda risky
The wave of blood was but a ripple
And breaking, Trump had a plan
But like a dangling participle
There are things that cannot stand
But there was a deluge of bad news
Women will die in alleys
As they lost the right to choose
And kids murdered in Uvalde
Rain forests will soon be gone
Dirty bombs a threat
And yet we wake in hope at every dawn
That we’re not done….yet
In the face of much injustice
A Court that’s lost its mind
There is a current that runs amongst us
That calls us to be kind
Many in these obituaries
I know nothing of
But all of them extraordinary
and I always fall in love
None of them pure saint or sinner
(well, excepting Jerry Lee)
They make me see I’m just a beginner
In learning how to be
To be more generous and sharing
To get out outside my head
More gentle and more caring
Of the living and the dead
A moment ago I was a boy
Learning how to dance
Have I forgotten that joy?
Not a chance!
Ivy Joe Hunter – 1940
Along with two other fellas
He sent an invitation across the nation
Via Martha and those holy mother Vandellas
Swingin’ and swayin’ records playin’
Could there be a better way to pray?
The rhythm begins and you start to sway
So grab a she or he or they
Oh sweet music take us away!
Sincere Cole – 2005
Cars, once, held the the top spot
But this year we got a new number one
More than 3500 kids were shot
Lives barely begun, he was just one
His mother died five years before
He was starting to smile again
Soft brown eyes, didn’t want to be poor
And worked odd jobs hours on end
He helped a woman pump gas on his last night
Another stranger he befriended
And then his life passed underneath the lights
Let us now praise the 2nd Amendment
Roy Edenton – 1926
Of his guitar, few praises were sung
Because the accolades went to those
Like Hank, Elvis and Neil Young
Patsy, Loretta, The Everly Bros
Maarten Schmidt – 1929
He discovered a quasar, was on the cover of Time
Was said to be like Galileo
While I discovered a flavor: tuna with lime
Sourdough bread, slice of tomato
Ralph Emery – 1933
Country music’s Dick Clark in his eternal youth
His affable air on radio waves
Carried the spark of three chords and the truth
It was rare when he was fazed
Except when he was the “Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man”
A sendup penned by The Byrds
Ralph mocked them at his Ole Opry Grand
Where the traditional was preferred
Ronnie Hawkins – 1935
A crazy quilt music was well within him
When he crossed the Canadian prairie
his music rooted in primal rock rhythm
of Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry.
Revered by the boys in the band
Before they were The Band of The Master
When The Hawk took off, he didn’t land
He just flew higher and faster
Bobby Rydell – 1942
Let’s hit the brakes, do a one-eighty when
Socks were bobby and boys were swell
Be my baby Frankie and Fabian
ci mancherà “Volare” and Bobby Rydell
Ilse Nathan and Ruth Siegler – 1924 and 1927
These sisters died within days of one another
Sixty-eight years after Auschwitz-Birkenau
The ashes of father, mother and brother
Darken our skies because then is now
We must allow the vow “Never Again!
To resonate ever more urgently
From Trump to Putin to Le Pen
We’re in a State of Emergency
Ronnie Spector – 1943
She led The Ronettes with bad-girl edge
“Be My Baby” was not sweet fantasia
Because she walked romance right up to the edge
A “Mean Streets” fit for Scorcese
Amy Winehouse, Chrissie Hynde
In Ronnie’s voice, it’s there they found
Sex soul art intertwined
The rock and roll heart of the wall of sound
Jerry Lee Lewis – 1935
“What made Milwaukee famous
Made a fool out of me”
And while his country songs could be contagious
It was his rock & roll that set us free
A kid with audacity, nerve, capacity
Outrageous-ablazed life on a wire
Naturally nasty, unswerving tenacity
Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire!!
Leonard Lipschitz – 1940
Puff the Magic Dragon
Was written by this guy
Along with Peter Yarrow
And neither one was high
Puff the Magic Dragon
Brought money to set him free
And he frolicked in California bliss
Inventing 3-D technology
Lamont Dozier – 1941
grocery bags were torn apart
He needed paper to write lyrics
He had the lowdown on Motown art
And an ear that could hear hits
He opened his chart-topping song
With a phrase that descended from above
On his door, a lover knocked too long
He cried, “Stop in the Name of Love!”
The Olympic Games, his son, lame
Fate to blame for a lost shot at fame
Heart aflame, The Father came
There is no shame when love is the aim
Louise Fletcher – 1934
She played the villainous Nurse Ratched
equalled only by The Wicked Witch
In being evil in every facet
As history’s most cinematic bitch
But when she gave her Oscar speech
She let the fiction fall behind
And to her parents (hearing out of reach)
eloquently, she signed
And into our hearts the cuckoo flew
“You are seeing my dream come true”
Jim Post – 1939
“I think it’s so groovy now
That people are finally gettin’ together”
Even then it threw me how
This tune by any measure
Could be considered a strong song
It did not at all move me
But before long I sang along
Feelin’…well…groovy
Rita Gardner – 1934
Try to remember, all you romantics
The only woman in the show
She was Luisa in The Fantasticks
Several million performances ago
Dan Wieden – 1945
A buttoned-down mad man who sure knew how to pitch
And Air Jordans flew out the store
Nike became a brand, Phil Knight got rich
From the final words of Gary Gilmore
“Let’s do it!” he had said at the moment he was shot
It took away Weiden’s breath
It may not be “just” but like it or not
Capitalism is built on death
Robbie Coltrane – 1950
He played an addicted psychologist (aren’t they all?)
All his characters carefully crafted
But the role that left children enthralled
Was groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid
Anita Kerr – 1927
You know that aahing and oohing
On oh so many songs?
That’s Anita Kerr’s doing
Yet it seemed so wrong
At least that’s how it felt
When her soothing sounds
Beat out “Help”
When the Grammys came round
Angela Lansbury – 1925
She had a lot to say when still a youth
From Boyer to Broadway to amateur sleuth
Mrs. Lovett’s pies were so darned delicious
But her recent demise? Perhaps suspicious?
Leonard Kriegel – 1933
Polio felt like a crime, heartless
disdainful, stealing exuberance
“Life was at the same time harsh
and painful, tender and humorous.”
The loss of legs led to rage
But this rawness until then, never put to page
A memoir unsparing of “after and before”
Daring for this airing back in 1964
Kevin Locke – 1954
In Lakota, he was Tokaheya Inajin, or “First to Rise”
Preserved culture through performance
He helped us look at the world through ancient eyes
The wind the river sustain and inform us
Billy Southern – 1977
A drug arrest when he was a teen
He knew privilege decided the case
Spent his life defending obscene
sentences to life for race
And yet he suffered his solitary trial
And took his own life away
Friends recall his engaging smile
As he quoted St. Vincent Millay
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
Judy Tenuta – 1949
Love Goddess, Aphrodite of the Accordion
The oddest, immodest sprite – what’s her story and
How did she best the rest of the comics
In a world sexist and so testeronic?
Theo Richmond – 1929
He wrote of his return to where he had never been:
To Konin – a quest to address the sins of Berlin
From memories of those who fled from his parents’ home
We hear the voices of the dead and they say
“Shalom”.
Loretta Lynn – 1932
She came from Butcher Holler
At fifteen she did marry
She was a coal miner’s daughter
But also the canary
Would she survive the toxic airwaves
Nashville masculinity?
But she did thrive and was on her way
To Kentucky girl divinity
Robert Clary – 1926
And now they’re all gone, those Heroes of Hogan
History’s weirdest bromance
But stranger still? Consider the notion
A twelve-year-old boy in France
Sun-shiny bright – he loved the movies
Learned to dance from Fred
Unaware of the night to all who were Jewish
Till his parents and siblings were dead
He said he survived by using his gift
Providing a respite from doom
He sang and danced, provided a lift
And Buchenwald is a pretty tough room
Patrick Hagerty – 1944
He loved his mama, had a dog and a truck
But wasn’t exactly Grand Ole Opry
Openly gay country singer. What the fuck?!
And get this: he came out in ‘73!
Stonewall inspired his coming out
Released a record of country tunes
Bought only by friends and fans devout
The dawn of fame was over by noon
Rediscovered after forty-some years
Straight and gay sang along
He credited his father for easing his fears:
Don’t let anyone say your life is wrong
Lois Curtis – 1967
A child unwell, age twelve sedated
Twenty years in institutions
Mental health hell, but undegraded
Unabated, she aided a revolution
“Get me out of here!” she staked her claim
She called out the indifferent and imperious
She made it clear that there is no shame
In simply saying “You can’t be serious!”
Herman Daly – 1938
To capitalists: a nemesis
He battled this: the premises
Of the gospel of economic growth
Money or morals? You can’t have both
Pablo Milanés – 1943
Troubadour of the Cuban Revolution
then created another with his art
Soul, jazz, Afro-Cuban fusion:
Nueva trova! And that was just the start
He revived careers, neglected for years
Sparked hope in a Caribbean united
Branded a subversive – it became clear
His love for Castro unrequited
Said to be the Dylan of Latin America
As the accolades poured forth
But wouldn’t it be more than fair enough
To say Bob’s the Pablito of the North.
Irene Cara – 1959
What a feeling: I’m gonna live forever
Sentiments sublime
The essence of being when it all comes together
And we step outside of time
Doris Grumbach – 1918
She wrote novels and memoirs
Essays and literary criticism
Editor at New Republic and NPR
And with Mary McCarty has a schism
I’m unfamiliar with her oeuvre
But I think that I should start
Just this quote helps me remove
The hardness in my heart:
‘The most lamentable loss
in the elderly spirit
is the erosion of hope.”
Hannah Pick-Goslar – 1928
In kindergarten, a friendship started
No sign of the coming fire
It ended while closely guarded
Feeding Anne Frank through barbed wire
Hebe de Bonafini – 1928
In morgues she searched for her missing sons
their fate worse than she had feared
She suffered in uncertainty, she was only one
Of 30,000 thousand mothers of The Disappeared
How does one go on when one cannot go on?
The unimaginable: an imagined scream
Wake up at dawn, put your shoes on
And go about overthrowing a regime
Danny Kalb – 1942
Dylan crashed with him when Bob left Hibbing
They hit The City with nothin’ to lose
Dylan cashed in but Danny opted for giving
Dues to The Project playing the blues
Van Ronk, Al Kooper were part of his odyssey
But when Muddy Waters heard him play
And said, “Oh man, you really got to me”
Danny could have died and been OK.
Christine McVie – 1943
Never a voice quite like it
Like out of myth she came
Her dad a violinist, her mother a psychic
“Perfect” – her maiden name
Sedate sonatas on the piano
When boogie bass took her left hand
Fats Domino shows how it goes so
Sweet Hello! And goodbye Chopin!
A Fleetwood Mac replacement
For the wounded Peter Green
It’s a fact not overstatement
No “Rumours” without Christine
“Don’t Stop” and “Over My Head”
Week after week at number one
Pop that rocked and led you to bed
She made lovin’ fun
James Caan – 1940
A cowboy with Mitchum and Wayne
(he said the latter cheated at chess)
He was in “Misery” with a fan gone insane
and Bonasera’s greatest success
In “Brian’s Song”, the dying friend,
An editor with an Elf for a son
Tolls booths were not his friend
And his brother’s dick wouldn’t do for a gun
A sailor, a gambler, made you cry and laugh
Not-so-bright tough guys his thing
It would be apt for his epitaph:
“Bada Bing!”.
Peter Bogdanovich – 1939
This is how he described his early life:
“I was born and then I liked movies”
Then Polly Platt became his wife
And then they made these beauties
“The Last Picture Show”, “What’s Up, Doc?”
“Paper Moon”, Orson-ish tour de force
But like Welles, well, he fell, widely mocked
Sex, Sybil, divorce of course
His knowledge and homages were vast
Friends with Hawks, Ford and Hitch
But one director eluded his grasp:
Bogdanovich!
Sidney Poitier -1927
“Epitomized dignity and grace”, said the Obamas
Grew up wearing flour-sack clothes
Unaware of race, raised in the Bahamas
Florida took the bloom off that rose
There was no doubt who the finest actors were
Brando, Newman, Redford, Hoffman
He became a star of that caliber
Despite all that roles where he was no option
Estelle Harris – 1928
“It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t go that cling”
Got her start from Handi-Wipe fame
Hit her stride in that voice she could bring
“George Constanza, you should be ashamed!”
Shrill, embarrassing, comedic gold
Utterly fervently frenetic
Estelle was surprised how often she was told
“My mother! You perfectly get it”!
Bob McGrath – 1932
Every number and letter bows their head
They have lost a hero
Words at the wake remain unsaid
with a soliloquy by Zero.
Thich Nhat Hanh – 1926
He knew early on
That nothing is everything
At once here and gone
Gilbert Gottfried – 1955
Strange to see Thich Nhat Hanh and he
Being mentioned in the same breath
But when we’re gone it seems to me
We all become one in death
And so the Buddhist monk drops the mic
after riffing on unrequited inspiration
And the comic goes all cosmic like
With an unguided meditation
Dino Dinelli – 1944
“I was feelin’ so bad
I asked my family doctor just what I had”
After replying “Do you have insurance?”
He gave this reassurance
He said “uh huh” (repetitively),
And said, “well, duh, it’s chemistry
Yes indeed all you need is
Good lovin’”
The Rascals had Dino on sticks
(when they were Young and not)
Steady, precise but with tricks
Said to be the best drummer in rock
Jim Stewart – 1930
“I had scarcely seen a Black person till I was grown”
Grew up on a farm in rural West Tennessee
Grand Ole Opry the only music he’d ever known
Then a Ray Charles “What’d I Say” epiphany
Soul, he got some, and got Stax up and running
With “Shotgun!”, “Shaft” and “Hold On, I’m Coming”
Racism gives no ground in the status quo of fences
Funky sound knocks ‘em down in a studio in Memphis
Ray Liotta – 1954
Field of Dreams Shoeless Joe
Goodfella Iciness with introspection
He’s gone it seems but do we know
If he’s not in witness protection?
It was finally time for us to grieve
The woodpecker ivory billed
But can you believe a reprieve received?
It’s double tap rap not stilled
Extinction delayed till next year
Though 80 years since a sighting
We live in hope the lost are here
In early light they are alighting
Oh let us embrace the miraculous
Let the sky, our hearts be filled
For a moment, bring them back to us
Parents, friends, the ivory billed
And let us all take notice
No matter what we’ve planned
There is no change to our prognosis:
our time is near at hand
We are all that we are meant to be
At this moment, complete
Death is not an enemy
But what makes our days so sweet
In 2023, some will lie comfortably
in a hearse, carried to night
But oh Death do not come for me
I’ve yet another verse to write!
(Almost all of these homages are inspired and drawn from the obituary writers of The New York Times. Amazing writers. The photos are also taken from The Times)
Thank you
denny caraher
Ashland, Oregon
dcaraher@gmail.com
Magnificent.