The following tribute to Charlie Blair was read at the Edgartown annual town meeting on April 8.

Charlie is the harbor
every cove and shallow
where the current eddies
slacks or roils
Where big boats bump
or slide right through
He knows where to tie
the last Wianno 
limping in late
Race Week ragged
He knows how to tuck
in tight 
the drunken sail boys
and girls 
late at night
and hang their dingys off
their sterns
without back talk
He’s in his office too
Shelly, Sarah
the young rough
summer crew
they train
and once they get the taste
eager to return
Or dead of winter 
scalloper broke down
after dark 
He is Cape Pogue
where he dragged 
those prize shellfish
Edgartown Gold
with his dad
He is Calebs and
Katama
Where he still scratches 
quahogs with his friends

Charlie is South Beach
where the big striped ones
slide up the frothy slope
he and the kids
drag home
He is the rips
He is in the shoals
trolling for blues
He is setting pots 
and trawls
with Rob and Tim and Con 
and other men when
we were young
and Nisa was still strong
He is swimming with Deb
Painting with Margot
Golfing with Taylor
all night long
Charlie has towed
with Tristan
now Tristan tows with us

Charlie is the yeast
that make
his baguettes rise
The kitchen
where the big
plump berries
roll out to win
first prize
at the Fair
while grandkids
lips turn purple
with the juice

Charlie is the fields
the marshes
the duck ponds
where the pop
of shotguns
singe the morning
Maryland sun
and gunpowder
like familiar snuff
puts pheasants in his pot
His kids shoot too
and learn
only what you need

Charlie is in the oysters
he and Scarlet
farmed
and sold
and traded
in the Bay
He rides with Wolfie
down the Coast
his family
in his boats
Charlies’ tending sheets 
on Hotfoot
tearing up the marks
dad and brother George 
sister Nancy
all along
this eastern seaboard

Charlie lives
forever in his stories
racing bikes and boats
on tracks
on oceans
or on frozen ponds
down low with
blinding speed
Finland to Wisconsin
thin shavings
from sharp blades
spilt vodka on the
cold Scandinavian ice
He lives in other friends
In Dayton, Geno, Ovid,
Albert, Jim and Pam
His Blair Clan
and so many more  

Charlie lives in the 
steady beam of
Barbados eastern light
he charts the stars
and shoots the sun
from Canary’s island coast 
Or Snow Goose in 
the arctic ice
George and crew
Charlie got them home

Charlie lives in the
great whale eye 
who rolled and stared
as he passed by
the big fish wake
shook the chartered party
fish tale of their lives

Charlie lives in all the oceans
ponds, fields, flats and 
skies but I see him
clearest like a brother
sharing lives
We carry each other’s 
water into
our own salted deserts
This Great Harbor of ours
brought us together
It fed us
It kept us strong
Charlie is
the harbor
where both of us 
belong