As a young girl I roller skated around the skating rink on Friday nights with the colored lights spinning slowly while “I’ll Be There” played so loud that you couldn’t hear your own voice singing along and later I sat in video bars and stared in awe at the tv screens while the “Thriller” and “Billie Jean” videos were played. I’m sad at the passing of Michael Jackson – sad that his life ended so suddenly and because it seems as if it ended before it was finished. I loved the poem that Maya Angelou wrote in his honor that was read at the Staples memorial and so I wanted to share it here.
We Had Him by Maya Angelou
Beloveds, now we know that we know nothing
Now that our bright and shining star can slip away from our fingertips like a puff of summer wind
Without notice, our dear love can escape our doting embrace
Sing our songs among the stars and and walk our dances across the face of the moon
In the instant we learn that Michael is gone we know nothing
No clocks can tell our time and noo oceans can rush our tides with the abrupt absence of our treasure
Though we are many, each of us is achingly alone
Piercingly alone
Only when we confess our confusion can we remember that he was a gift to us and we did have him
He came to us from the Creator, trailing creativity in abundance
Despite the anguish of life he was sheathed in mother love and family love and survived and did not more than that
He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style
We had him
Whether we knew who he was or did not know, he was our’s and we were his
We had him
Beautiful, delighting our eyes
His raked his hat aslant over his brow and took a pose on his toes for all of us and we laughed and stomped our feet for him
We were enchanted with his passion because he held nothing
He gave us all he had been given
Today in Tokyo, beneath the Eiffel Tower, in Ghana’s Blackstar Square, in Johannesburg, in Pittsburgh, in Birmingham, Alabama and Birmingham England, we are missing Michael Jackson
But we do know we had him
And we are the world.
