Sophia’s Elegy, by Gershon Maller

The first creative response to Sophia’s death was this, the lovely elegy written for her, and read at her interment in February 2014, by her friend, philosopher and poet, Dr. Gershon Maller.

Sophia was buried with prayer and poetry, her casket strewn with rose petals.

Elegy for Sophia by Gershon Maller

You fell from what could not hold you

as if shaken from the leaves of a book

where you did not fit the lines

that thrive only on what would barely suffice.

There are three who come to gather you

to gather you as you fall.

 

And now you fall

you are falling

upward into the heights

to follow Holderlin

to speak with aetherials and giants

long into the night

of how many pins

of mere being

there are on an angel’s head.

 

Dearest

count them

as you fall from sleep

as if into a dream

through a million diamonds

into the light

that shows itself

but whereof

we cannot speak.

 

There will be three who come to gather you

to gather you as you fall.