He wore existence: a Poem for Simon Mein

(The Requiem Eucharist for The Rev. Canon Simon Mein was celebrated today at St. Andrew's School, Middletown, Delaware.  Between an extraordinary remembrance by the Headmaster Tad Roach and an equally fine homily by Bishop Wayne Wright, I read this poem. It was an honor to be asked.)

He Wore Existence: A Poem for Simon.

He wore existence

Like a scholar’s tweed coat,

Over the years

It became a bit frayed.

            As he became frail

It became a bit baggy.

No one would dare call him

And existentialist,

For existence was just a coat.

Still, he couldn't let go

The playful belief,

That by putting on existence

He was practicing incarnation.

He was unafraid of inconvenient truths,

And monstrous realities

And held as suspect

Mushy-headed religious idealism.

In response he conjured

Mental banquets

From the realities of life,

Just as he prepared

Delights for the palette

For his generous table.

No one and nothing was safe

From his  intellectual reach,

From his desire to cook up

A new theological dish

Worthy of both

Belief and grace.

He did not live in the land

Of what if,

But in the real world

Of “there you are.”

He wrestled with

night messengers,

Was wounded,

And prevailed.

He expected us to

Do so as well.

So it is not surprising

That just moments ago

And quite suddenly

he threw off existence

Hung his coat on entropy's peg,

And left us to fend for ourselves.

The good realist teaches us

to prepare our own meals

and make our own theological bed,

And steps away,

And if we are irritated and angry

            That he did so

Perhaps we will remember:

He did not believe in existence,

            but in living,

Not in entropy alone,

            but in delight.

Mark Harris, February 23rd, 2012