Two Years

Three months after his 65th birthday, Jim Cogan passed away on June 23 2013.
 Photo: Jim with his girls.

(Photo: John Stack)

Jim with his only son, Bobby.


A poem for the day that's in it.

I Have Your Name    by Mary Dorcey

I have your name

And no use for it.

It will never call you home again.

I have all your names still;

Every one of them

On the tip of my tongue

I have to bite my lip

To keep from spilling them.

Useless now-

Nobody comes.

I have your name and no use for it.

I have said it

Times without number,

Without thinking,

Not needing to think.

I have called it through the years

Winter and summer

Early and late.

First thing in the morning

And last thing at night.

………………

I have said it in rapture,

In anger,

In grief.

I have called it across fields

Bellowed into the wind,

Like a farmer calling home the dogs

And had it blown back on my lips

I have murmured it so softly

No one heard but you.

I have your name and no use for it

No matter where

I say it now:

How loudly

Or how often-

It will never

Call you home.


"The day Thou gavest, Lord, has ended,
The darkness falls at Thy behest."