Saturday, January 21, 2006

Lord Byron




The better days of life were ours;
The worst can be but mine:
The sun that cheers, the storm that lowers,
Shall never more be thine.
The silence of that dreamless sleep
I envy now too much to weep;
Nor need I to repine
That all those charms have pass'd away,
I might have watch'd through long decay.

The better days of life were ours, was never more true then the days I hung out with Byron. Having been in the life for more than a few years Byron came into my life as the type of friend who would help me develop into something more polished than I was. Lets be honest, being "in the life" comes with more than its share of drama and pain which sometimes seem to be matched by equally great heights of joy and happiness. Byron became somewhat of a foster parent to me, teaching me more of the rules or code that comes with carrying ones self as a proper gay man. For many years I worked in Detroit's Renaissance Center on Detroit's waterfront. Byron ran the Olga's kitchen on the food concourse and on many evenings he would feed me while listening to all of my stories of man to man woe. It seems silly now but then I was seriously considering the long term implications of being "in the life". Eventually Byron moved into the same Palmer Park apartment building and we began to go out to the clubs together, his favorites being Todd's and the Music Institute down town. I would watch intently on how Byron would carry him self in public and in the club... and I learned allot! On the dance floor Byron would often dance alone with as little as possible on. He would become entranced by the beet of the music often stomping as part of his dance in a near tribal trance. My fondest memory was a trip to Cleveland Ohio with or friend Perry in tow.... What an amazing time!

Byron has since passed away.. but I often hear his voice in the back of my head, when confronted to the challenges of life!
The images tonight seem appropriate as they book end our trip to Cleveland... Starting a three day weekend with all the energy possible and returning barely able to cope, Byron lived his life to the fullest.

Yet how much less it were to gain,
Though thou hast left me free,
The loveliest things that still remain,
Than thus remember thee!
The all of thine that cannot die
Through dark and dread Eternity
Returns again to me,
And more thy buried love endears
Than aught except its living years.

Selected portions from a poem entitled "And Thou Art Dead, As Young and Fair", first published in 1812.

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