A Remembrance of an Unforgotten Vineyard Summer - by Tomas Napoleon
Tomas Napoleon, a poet and friend of the Harrington family, wrote this poem when Ricky Harrington died in a car crash. It was read at his funeral and the last two lines have been adapted for the Memorial and are engraved on a plaque mounted at the base of the lighthouse.
The photo of the lighthouse at sunset was taken by Jamie Smart on a trip to Martha's Vineyard the year before she too was killed in an automobile accident. She was 17, the same age as Ricky Harrington.
A Remembrance of an Unforgotten Vineyard Summer
We cradled their youth that summer, both little
Ricky and Blake, along with the
sailfish (sailboat) in our arms, which we walked down the predestined
sandy path,
to the shore.
To launch, swim and play, those were the only weights we had,
the only problems of the day.
We stormed the tide and found our beach below the day golden in
the early morning of that
Vineyard summer.
That was the carefree story of our lives.
Sun nurtured warmth and the taste of salt water so sweet to our
lips....
We changed and readied behind the shrubs on old State Beach.
Our private and public selves - - a reunion of the two - - not
too far from that world of
167 Upper Main Street.
It was bright with laughter; beloved little Ricky and Blake, blonde
and sun-drenched with
youth and good looks.
Carol, Chris, Debbie, Diane and Gamma Marie Harrington along with
Rick and Tomas...
All our innocence celebrated there which found no weight
of sweet complicity. The only weight was how
to hold to all and to each other through this
unforgotten day; the carefree posture of these two youthful boys.
All our celebration was the embrace of God's warm sunshine, the
salt air, and the Vineyard water
in our arms.
Our only summer love was for these boys.
Here lay the founding pleasure of our unforgotten summer.
Our solidarity wore like the blue sleeves of
the Vineyard's shores
that defined the boundaries of that crystallized day.
Such a celebration of life, an irrepressible grace, bestowed upon
us, from the glory of God.
With their laughter, little Ricky and Blake skimmed the calm with
stones.
Anxious they were to carve their mark... This a desire of their
youth.
In time of a Menemsha - sunset - air, coupled
with their effervescent youth,
An evening burned through its harbour, leaving the remaining world
and its gloom far behind.
Now the midsummer's day lay black and gold...
A slippery surface of life, for no one to hold still.
We celebrated this unforgotten day, when we dared not seek a world
beyond
the Vineyard Sound.
A young boy who loved to fish; to win; and to
become a man...
His only task - - his only weight.
Those of us left behind, like undeveloped nations,
angry and and ambivalent in the hope of peace,
Now rests in our arms, where from once we embraced youth...
Leave us this time, this remembrance, this Vineyard
summer with these two boys
And
Let the celebration of Ricky Harrington and his endless youth,
when the world was to him still no problem,
Always be that unforgotten Vineyard Summer - - An everlasting
day.
Tomas Napoleon
October 1995