Lauren Merritt served as Poet Laureate of Valley Presbyterian Church of Portola Valley, California. He was a retired aerospace electrical engineer whose career began with earning both a BSEE and an MSE from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Over the course of his professional life, his designs quite literally reached beyond Earth, circling the planet, resting on the Moon, and traveling far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Before his career was cut short by the onset of Parkinson’s disease in 2004, he accumulated twelve patents and authored thirteen trade journal articles. In later years, Lauren published a book of poetry and devoted himself to writing poems and a weekly newsletter for Valley Presbyterian Church, where his faith, insight, and creativity inspired so many others.
Excerpt from “Moving On”
In the courtyard the wagons sit
Piled high with household wares
And little things
Each quite worthless by itself
But together describing
The essence of a family
Soon to be moving on.
A review of Lauren Merritt’s book, The Heart of An Engineer, is available at Foreword.
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