“Less is more,” he liked to say

In golden hours on the porch;

Scanning the summer lake,

Listening to the loons. And

Better yet, before the flaming logs

In cool of spring and fall, in

Afterglow and early dark, in

Simple ways of bygone times

Lit by the lambent light of fire.

Just so. And we are now

The more for all the years of

Having known and loved him and

The less upon his leaving us.

Henry D.M. Sherrerd Jr. of Dexter has been an outboard-motor mechanic, mapmaker, military data analyst and screenwriter, among other things. This recollection is on his friend William C. Allen of Ellsworth.

Uni-Verse offers a poem grown from the experience of Maine twice a month in Monday’s lifestyle section. Poems of fewer than 20 lines on a Maine-related theme may be submitted for consideration to poetry@bangordailynews.net or mailed to Dana Wilde, Uni-Verse editor, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04401.