by Katherine Rudolph
Bright and bold,
Red and gold:
Hold the spirit’s flower!
Live creative power.
Preserve the pure delight
Of his sense of sight;
Comradery and charm.
Power to disarm…
Praise: to Michael Strong!
Memories along
The labyrinthine ways,
The courage of his days:
The acting genius
The brilliant keenness:
A life of trials and trails
See the light prevail…
Black potential of the night…
Certain glory of the fight!
Rumble thunder loud,
Battle stormy clouds.
The drama of his life
The pain, the joy, the strife!
Then, the rain ensues:
And rainbow’s colour-hues…
Rise up in-between
Glowing like a dream…
Born on Bastille Day
Freedom, Equality
Brotherhood too.
‘He’ll break bread with you!’
Yellow glows the sun.
Shines on everyone.
Yellow’s shiny glow –
Yet, he felt alone…
-The broken home.
Yet in poverty,
Michael’s high quality…
He needed the warmth
Longed for the hearth.
Assuaging the pain:
The Golden Fire- Flame.
The Adolescence
In Bedford Stuyvesant,
The African-Americans –
Their battles and burdens
Their tribulations.
His mother’s short life:
The inner-world strife.
Her love of the word
And literature.
Michael’s great talent,
The player’s pageant
She nourished
He flourished.
In recitation:
‘The Pied Piper of Hamlin’
But she perished, alas
At her own hand.
‘Oh Moon of Alabama
Now we must say – ‘Goodbye’…
Brecht’s ‘Mahogany’ – Tragedy.
Michael’s strong reality:
To know and to feel
to confront and to heal.
Does money compensate?
For the soul-pain?
Rose red hues
Sharpen the view.
The scholarships he had earned.
The playwright’s scripts he had learned…
He had earned what he gained
And it was not in vain.
‘Literary Criticism’
Revealing the genius
In depth of analysis…
Columbia Honours:
Bachelors… Masters
New fruits to discover
And times to uncover:
Dramas and plays,
Another phase:
Peter Weiss’ – ‘The Investigation’
Michael directed in Wisconsin…
True love and travel in sight,
Now to open his eyes:
An Odyssey across the sea
Foot-loose and fancy-free!
‘Sitting in an English garden,
waiting for the sun…
If the sun don’t come,
We’ll be standing in the English rain.’
Old friends in England delight…
Then, Europe: the age-old sights!
As love and loss unfurl,
it opens up a new world.
‘The Times are a Changin’
And ’Sergeant Pepper’
Unveil a questing, of youthful endeavor:
The Woodstock generation!
The Crown of Creation.
Who are we?
‘We are stardust. We are golden…
And we have to get ourselves
Back to the garden.’
‘Sleepers, Awaken…
The night has gone and taken.
Your darkest fears,
And left you here.
And the sun it shines so clear!’
Catastrophes
Can set you free!
The Catskill Mountains, ‘High Mount’.
‘Home’; is up in the clouds.
‘Yes, back to the land,
Wood chopping is grand!
The winter is white and pure…
A path has opened clear.
Yet as Springtime comes again:
To California with friends!
In the old blue bus,
The ‘travel-lust’…
Adventure in desert lands.
Geronimo’s Meadow –
In sun and in shadow.
On the way to San Fran…
Wisconsin to New York:
A turn in the road, a ’fork’
For that path came to an end.
Love is lost once again, again.
Violet light come in.
Mature – and score a win!
For an actor arises
Out of the ashes.
Plays in ‘A Winter’s Tale’.
Malvolio’s role doesn’t fail!
Ever onward, ever on!
The path has just begun
Then Michael finally meets
His soul-mate, this time, for keeps.
The dream has lead him home.
Love, and travel to sights untold!
Macchu Pichu – the heights
The mystery peaks, shining bright!
Thirty years touring with ‘Word Salad’
300+performances: ‘An Actor’s Ballad’!
Directing and playing with his mate
Is called shared-giving:creative fate…
In The Living Theatre fame
He has joined and appeared on stage.
To culminate his life-work,
Young delinquents he helped in New York.
In calligraphy he’s accomplished-
Exhibited and published!
He has a house near Woodstock, once more…
For freedom has now won the score!
With his mate he has lived in bliss,
A Happening not to be missed!
Reflective blue contemplates
All the losses and the gains.
To California he travels…
With an old friend, the ‘times-past’ unravel.
The trials and the trails,
Rebounding without fail…
Now, a peaceful life with his friend-
His woman – now ‘home’ once again.
Home-cooking and peace prevail:
A respite from the world’s travail.
Older, and still feeling ‘high’.
On that, one can surely rely!
Now, green is the grass where he rests.
By the rocks and the streams, refreshed…
Mother Earth shall now shelter him,
Bringing the calm… and the balm.
The Play dreams on…
And nothing’s gone.
Let rhythms that ring-chime…
Build him new lifetimes!
Katherine Rudolph