I missed writing about some important deaths, for one reason or another. I especially wish I’d written up Kitty Wells, Duck Dunn, and Johnny Otis (Hand Jive!), but those are the breaks. Friends with connections to the families said relatives of Sally Ride and Donna Summer saw what I’d written about their passings, which was gratifying. Here are some farewells, with the date they were written — usually, but not always, the day the person died.

2-19 Whitney Houston

Which did life break first?
Wings, spirit, body, voice? Now,
Silence, songbird. Rest.

2-29 Davy Jones (written the previous December, for his last birthday)
Ah, darling Davy
Child TV star, then trained
To be a jockey

But the stage beckoned
“Oliver’s” artful dodger
Made him a real star

Ed Sullivan Show
Had “Oliver’s” cast, same night
Of Beatles’ debut

Girls all went crazy
Davy knew what he wanted
Monkees made it true

3-27 Adrienne Rich, feminist poet and author

Wilderness flashlight
One tiny, brave beam cuts through
Lonely, then leading

3-28 Earl Scruggs
Heavenly breakdown
God said, “Earl, I need you to
“Come in on banjo”

Banjo pioneer
And picker extraordinaire
Rest in peace, Earl Scruggs

4-5 “One louder” haiku (Jim Marshall)

Start with a Bassman
Separate amp from speakers
Use four 12-inches

Close cabinet back
Add higher-gain pre-amp valves
Post-volume filter

Overdrive sooner
Treble frequencies boosted
Voilà! The Marshall

Townshend, Entwistle
Stacked ’em — the world got louder
Cream, Hendrix echoed

Dozens of models
Followed — famed followers, too
Too many to count

Ideas have lives
As do great sounds and moments
Decay and sustain

Marshall, the amp king
Lived to 11, times 8
Rest in non peace, Jim

4-18 “American icon” haiku

Drape Bandstand in black
Then keep on rockin’ — Dick Clark
Would want it that way

4-20 “Take a load off” haiku (Levon Helm)

Divine harmony
Levon, drums, mic, stage, no fright
One with everything

5-8 Wild Things haiku

‘Bye, Maurice Sendak
You showed us we would conquer
Though there be monsters

5-17 Donna Summer

Heaven’s disco ball
Just added a few facets
Rock in peace, hot stuff

Cancer’s never fair
Somehow it’s even more wrong
For Donna Summer

Queen of an era
When people lived on dance floors
Parties never stopped

“Heaven Knows,” “Bad Girls”
And “Love to Love You Baby”
“On the Radio”

When parties did stop
They all stopped with the same song:
Ms. Summer’s “Last Dance”

‘Bye Donna Summer
Thanks for all the dance floor grooves
Of our well spent youth

7-23 Trailblazer haiku

Sailing through the stars
This one last time, for all time
Liftoff, Sally Ride

8-21 “We Could Use Some Laughs” haiku

‘Bye Phyllis Diller
Blazed trail of tears (of laughter)
Queen of one-liners

Self deprecation
And domestic disasters
Made thousands of jokes

“Bury the laundry”
“Skip baby’s bath — he won’t tell”
Among your fine tips

“Goodnight, We Love You”
DVD captured career,
Your many talents

Mom and I watched it
In her final days — maybe
The last laughs she had

Hope now you’re having
The last laugh because no one
Could laugh quite like you

‘Bye Phyllis Diller
Loved your alligator shoes
Or were you barefoot?

8-26 Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong answered
Moon’s timeless pull — fast footprints
In history’s tides

In heavens, made real
Eons of human dreaming
Now he joins the stars

9-26 Smooth exit haiku

‘Bye Andy Williams
Moon River, now River Styx
You’re crossing in style

10-1 A.O. Sulzberger

Modesty, clear thought
Arthur Ochs “Punch” Sulzberger
A bold vision, too

Punch started quite young
Quickly grew into the job
And never looked back

Put press freedom first
And profits a close second
Knew papers need both

The Old Grey Lady
Added color on his watch
Took on new topics

But held to its core
Accuracy, good judgment
High integrity

World’s greatest paper
Made its mistakes, some big ones,
But fixed them, moved on

Pentagon Papers
Tested resolve, but not faith
In First Amendment

Serious business
But Punch also had the time
For a laugh, a pun

‘Bye, Punch Sulzberger
Gentleman, and gentle man
Steady at the helm

10-21 Veteran haiku

‘Bye, George McGovern
Of Mitchell, South Dakota
From prairie to dust

A minister’s son
Bomber pilot war hero
One wife throughout life

Midwestern solid
His “crazy” causes were peace,
Feeding the hungry

History professor
Desired to learn from the past
Avoid its mistakes

Cast as cowardly
He really was a lion
With courage untold

I heard him speak once
To thousands of Legionaires
At their convention

Said America
Was strong and great — but misguided
About Vietnam

And telling that crowd
We were fighting the wrong war
Took tremendous guts

Then “nutty lib” was
Trounced by Mr. Sanity
Tricky Dick Nixon

McGovern lived on,
Lived long, doing what he could
To help others

Whatever one thinks
Of his politics, no one
Should question his heart

In ’67,
This date, thousands protested
War in Vietnam

45 years on
George McGovern breathed his last
Peaceful warrior, rest

12-5 Dave Brubeck

Take five, Dave Brubeck
After all, you did it all
In your long career

Classical training
Then jazz, jazz, jazz — cracked the charts
And sold a million

5/4 and 9/8
11/4 — signatures
Few others had mined

Conquered Concord, Kool,
Newport, college campuses
With classic quartet

Then you wrote ballets,
Cantatas, orchestral works,
Oratorios

Time to stop, marvel
And call “Time Out” one last time
Brubeck, over, and out

12-20 Sandy Hook haiku

1 insane person
And too many God damned guns
We’ve seen this before

20 empty desks
40 empty little shoes
Countless empty laps

20 empty beds
20 holes in the night sky
With light leaking through

20 small coffins
20 headstones each weighing
As much as the world

And 8 large coffins
6 holding brave protectors
Can we be as brave?

Complicated, yes,
But clear: Unless we’re as brave
We’ll see this again