To Larry Berk
To call you the Creative Champion of the Arts
Would be an achievement befitting you
As a librarian
An advocate
and as a friend
To think your impact as meaningful
Would be calling a rainbow only
slightly attractive
Walking by
seeing the gallery
I couldn't picture the space without it
To see and hear the poets you brought here
Is like tasting fine wine in Paris
As Charlie wondered
As we do
what life is all about
The depth and breadth of their work
refreshing the dull landscape we knew.
To know you as a friend
Is something I cherish
Like E. B White's Wilbur and Charlotte
Rare is it to find a friend and a fellow writer
You, BestSeller, were both.
- Brian Liston
Larry Berk, a local poet, friend and supporter of poets, passed away on October 30, 2006. Work from his recently published The Charley Poems (Golden Notebook Press) was featured here in our January issue.
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