Today
I read of a Russian writer who has passed away
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, way back when I first heard his name
And read the things he wrote and how he played the game
Of life and just how life dealt the cards for him to play.
The many hells the prison cells and cancer cells and
Through it all he strode on to find his faith again and
Wrote so many splendid things. I saw him as I did see Tolstoy.
I took the time way back then to write him a line
To say just how much his life and work touched me deeply
As did Tolstoy's and Dr Zhivago.....I have written to many writers/poets
Mattered little whether they replied or not, most all did,
Solzhenitsyn, Carl Sagan,Malcolm Mugerridge, the late Pope Paul 11
Bryce Courtenay, Billy Graham to name but just a few, these were
Men and woman above the normal stamp of what is plain and ordinary
These were people who touched me as did my first hero at the
Early age of ten, his name was Stanley Matthews, the most brilliant
Soccer player and sporting gentleman that ever lived, and I loved and
Still do love the game and give thought to his name. I lost the hand-wriiten letter he replied to me
Along with that of others mentioned here. It matters little
Its what their lives and struggles helped to make of me, I would be so much
Less a poet to fail to give some rememberance to Alexander Solzhenitsyn
On his exit from this world, I read today, but, as long as we can
Hold a memory in our hearts of friends, and family and those we idolized
And loved....they never really die, and if souls they have, for those gone.who journey
To great mansions beyond the sky, I feel they would be welcomed in
With 'well done you good an faithful servant'....WELL DONE.
*
To the memory of a man and writer
Solzhenitsyn was his name who journeyed on.....