A Farewell to Wayne Shorter & Ed Ward

So Long

The longer you walk the earth

The more goodbyes you say

Under your breath as a tearful prayer

Or out loud raging at heaven for your loss and their gain

Today I am grateful two cultural leviathans have left

a world of oxygen tanks and wheelchairs for their rightful place

in the firmament of our memories and the galaxies

not big enough for their titanic endeavors on this sphere.

The person I have become was because of

their mighty ministrations to mankind!

You know Wayne and some of you know Ed…

They both migrated the masses to places they never knew existed.

This is a better place for their Footprints…

Photo: Wayne Shorter
Artwork credit: “East of Saratoga, Wyoming” – Watercolor Ink – Edwin Forrest Ward

Denver Poet Laureate Ed Ward and Saxophone Titan, NEA Jazz Master Wayne Shorter; both passed away this week and The Nightside will be paying a tribute to these cultural masters at our new time 9 pm-midnight on Sunday, March 5, on KUVO JAZZ.

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