RIP – Jon Mcintire, former manager of Grateful Dead and New Riders

Jon Mcintire, former manager of the Grateful Dead and New Riders of the Purple Sage, and a Rex Foundation board member, passed away on Feb. 16th 2012.

He had been suffering with throat cancer, according to a close friend.   No further details are available, but we do have this beautiful poem, by Robert Hunter.

 

For Jon McIntire, a Word or Two

What word will do
to gesture toward
the dark gathering
of mutual mystery,
said of the unseen
by saying nothing?

Beyond utterance,
speechlessness
hoping to be heard
by a keener ear,
before any word
was ever spoken,
dies broken like night
by a single shaft of sun.

Silence past Summer,
unmurmuring Spring,
Autumn unmentioned,
Winter, mute, or that
other season: Humanity
wherein we dwell,
listening, listening,
sometimes ceasing
to mere appearance.

Not far to go,
a simple step
into forever. . .

Off then, goodnight,
into sheer light
beyond any season
known to the moon.

February 16, 2012 Robert Hunter

Jon McIntire - manager of Grateful Dead and New Riders of the Purple Sage