For The Love Of The Game

The brilliant, much-loved Australian poet and blogger, Paul Squires, died this time last year. I still miss him.

I felt compelled to write a little tribute to him today……

TO PAUL

For The Love Of The Game – I saw it written on a wall and I thought of you; how much you loved the game of words, of music, of poetry, of life. You played the game, not to win but just for the love of it. The love of it all.

A year after your death there is still a little ache in my chest, in my heart. Some people might be surprised at that because I didn’t know you in person but I knew your essence, your spirit. It was larger than you were and I still feel it , looking down on us all, getting into our heads and our hearts and pushing us to write and think and be true.

You made me imagine music in the streets, falling like squares of light. My feet on the well worn roads are a Coltrane solo, double time, burning bright.

You made me imagine colour. Still lives in pink and silver and afternoon yellow, exploring the processes of seeing and looking until my head is full and all I can remember is mesmerising shades of beauty.

You made me imagine time. Linear, looping, forwards, backwards. We humans are so slow compared to the glorious speed of light. Time, it passes. Of that there is no doubt, but it doesn’t stop us remembering .

I bet you travel light now. Able to shift from star to star as quickly as breathing. I bet you see the things you knew all along, drinking in the scent of the moon.

Sometimes I think I see you, directing clouds, colouring sunsets, blowing the dust from the tops of redgums. You are distant but close, you are gone but you are still here, still playing the game, still loving it, meandering mysteriously through the skies, with only poems in your pockets.

Love always.