I'm sorry I can't be with you today

I'm sorry I can't be with you today
When all the family's gathered in one place.
But I am with you in another way,

A current in the stream of what you say,
Alive within your consciousness of grace.
I'm sorry I can't be with you today

To share your happiness and touch the clay
That once it was my fortune to embrace.
But I am with you in another way,

An intimate that time cannot betray,
With you always, unconstrained by space.
I'm sorry I can't be with you today

To watch with you the slanting sunlight play,
Casting lovely shadows through the lace.
But I am with you in another way,

Waiting for you where the shadows lay
Their darkness soft across your gentle face.
I'm sorry I can't be with you today.
But I am with you in another way.

---Nicholas Gordon