Poudre High School student and slam poet Misha Zimmerman, wrote Eulogy For A Young Poet,  after a fellow student took his life in September 2010. Misha didn’t know Harrison Brown, but his death still had a tremendous impact upon her.

“Eulogy for a Young Poet” by Misha Zimmerman from Michelle Venus on Vimeo.

Eulogy for A Young Poet
I never knew you
But I heard you were a poet
And I wonder if we’ll ever know
The meter you wrote your last words in
I heard you loved to climb and try to reach out to touch the sky
I hope you’ve found out what it feels like

I never knew you
But I heard you were always smiling
I heard you lit up the world
And I wonder what made your world grow dark
I wonder what it was that
Sparked your self destruction

I never knew you
But I heard you had a girlfriend
I bet she loved you
I heard you held hands
And kissed in the rain
And that you wanted two little girls someday
What happened?

What made you snap?
What was so bad?
That you’d take your own life away

Is it just me or is the world a little
Quieter without you in it
Though I bet if I were to hear your laugh
I wouldn’t recognize it

I never knew you
We only shared a passing glance
In the hallways at school
You never looked sad
What happened to you?
What was so bad?

Green paper hearts tapped to the walls
Of every classroom
I wish you’d known
How many people love you

Tear streaks crisscross
Faces I’ve never seen frown
Making a cage of self doubt
Friends are trying to work out
What they could have done
Should have done
If only they’d known

But they couldn’t have known
Will never know
What it was that made
Your heart grow cold

You were only 15
Funny how young that seems now
Crazy how your death
Has shaken the very breath
We hold onto

I never knew you
I wonder what your favorite song was
I wonder what you last dreamt of
And when you woke up
Did you know it would be
Your last living dream?

And no
I don’t know where I’m going with this
I guess I’m just writing a Eulogy for a fellow poet
I guess I’m just trying
To make sense of the distress
That’s been crowding the halls lately

Trying to put words
Ti the rhythm of a heart
I never heard beating

Cause I’m grieving
The loss of a boy I never knew
The loss of a friend, a son,
And a soul gone too soon.

I only knew you through stories
And I know stories are
Glorified once were gone
But I heard of your kindness
Before you sung your last song

It’s funny how life keeps going
How we march on
Though your footsteps
Are fading behind us

I keep picturing your mother
Alone in your room
Hugging the clothes you wore to her chest
Trying to breathe life
Back into your wounds

I can see your father
Sitting and staring off into space
Trying to recreate the image of that face
He never thought he’d have to burry

I can picture them waking up screaming
And running to your bed
Praying it was only a dream

I never knew you
But I heard you were a poet
And I don’t understand
Why you reached for a gun
Instead of your pen

You could have filled
Pages upon pages with your pan
Could have used your stanzas
As a bullet
To kill your anger

They say the pen
Is mightier than the sword
I believe the poem
Is stronger than the gun

Why did you reach for that steal monster
And pull the trigger
Instead of letting bitter words
Form on your tongue?

Now I wonder,
What poems died with you?
What stanzas will never be written?
What lines will never be heard?
How many papers are blank longing for your words?

I never knew you
But I wish I did
‘Cause I heard you were a poet
And maybe
I could have handed you a pen