David and Dylan

source

This is not what I was planning on posting, but today we lost a light...a light that burned exceptionally brightly for generations. And burned so very brightly, to the very end.

David Bowie kept his cancer a secret from many, and for nearly two years, worked on his last studio album, and by all accounts, valiantly fought the good fight...but today his light was extinguished.

I don't have the words. Part of my growing up - "Let's Dance", "China Girl", "Modern Love" in the 1980s and 1990s in particular, "Under Pressure" with Queen, and so much more...his passing is a stinging reminder that those days are gone, never to return. And while I'm grateful for all that he gave the world...I grieve.

So for today, the most fitting thing I could find is a classic (and old favorite of mine since I first read it in college). Dylan Thomas' Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

*I bolded the fifth paragraph as it seemed the most fitting description of how Bowie lived his last days...and indeed, his whole life. R.I.P.