Elegy for Sharon Brown

                (1934-1972)

High from the rocks she hurtled down

To lifelessness in waters peaked with stone

Her sure and flagrant daring caught

And whirled and felled by gravity. 

What radiances, what darting snares

And starburst poignancies impaled

On those scant shores near Monterey that day.

Could she have leapt up ledges there

When all at once her balance shook –

Spun into line and anchoring somehow

And held against that awful fall –

She would be telling tales to jolt our eyes

Her foothold and her daring matched for life.

                                                 Lois Langland, Lines of Rivers