August 1-4, 2021

He Is NOT Dead, Just Gone

my friend Stan Lynn died last night

(but lives, he is not no more, just gone)

he was sick and wasn’t getting better

and sixteen months of COVID lockdown

it has faded the memory of unseen faces

most of what I remember of Stan is how

on Sundays he would talk of his old days

back in his old country with his band

playing at Saturday evening dances and

ever faithful, at Sunday morning worship

the same lips playing the same trumpet

but the eyes, those glorious eyes of his

alive! blazing with the joy of his salvation

God was no theory for Stan, He was real

is more real now, and his trumpet glorious!

Even though I made up the bit about Stan playing at Sunday’s worship after Saturday’s dances, it fits quite well with what I learned of Stan over the years that I knew him. He loved to play and he loved his God.

May your trumpet ever praise our God!

Photo credit: Mike Niblett

Stan is third from the left