elegy: in memory of sedef olcer

sitting in a hotel conference room in Salvador
staring for seven hour stretches at a laptop screen,
scanning through my e-mail in a distressed daydream
to see a short message from home...
...so a yogi i've come to know crossed the threshold into another incarnation,

abandoning her body in pursuit of higher vibrations...

a long-time scholar of the secrets of bones

sees fit to return the skeleton she had on loan,

passes away,

her story suddenly dissolving into memory's shadowy grays...

my day shifts to surreal in a second
because far in the distance a dark reaper beckons
harvesting a heavy crop,
taking down high souls before they wanted to drop...
gone is a woman i barely know
a student seeking to embody esoteric sanskrit glow
i offer up unsolicited condolences

with the sincerity of a stranger from afar

a range of illogical feelings courses through all my senses

the gates of raw emotion suddely ajar

i offer this up as a tribute
in memory of sedef olcer
a universal yoga devotee
a mentor from a distance to me
a priestess equipped with secret siddhis
a woman whose superior focus was perceptible in degrees
from across a room she exhibits balance & form ,
a moving portrait of a mind that's managed to still its own storms

almost perfect alignment

she promoted her perspective through carefully connected pics

her spirit departs her body

the way flames devour a wick
i honor the passing of a yogi whose awareness was beyond mine
she was an exquisite collection of harmonious, balanced lines
and so i offer up this prayer
this mantra
this meditation:
a spell to bless an old soul with a superior incarnation:

may your soul find the purity you are seeking…

may you sustain a yogic state through which the gurus are speaking

may your prana never weaken

may you attain the oneness you are seeking…

...rest in peace...