Between

Sitting over words

very late I have heard a kind of whispered sighing

not far

like a night wind in pines or like the sea in the dark

the echo of everything that has ever

been spoken

still spinning in one syllable

between the earth and silence

-- "Utterance" by W.S. Merwin

For Karen

January 25, 1955 - March 14, 2001

Comments

[Flannista]

THE WISH TO BE GENEROUS
Wendell Berry

All that I serve will die, all my delights,
the flesh kindled from my flesh, garden and field,
the silent lilies standing in the woods,
the woods, the hill, the whole earth, all
will burn in man's evil, or dwindle
in its own age. Let the world bring on me
the sleep of darkness without stars, so I may know
my little light taken from me into the seed
of the beginning and the end, so I may bow
to mystery, and take my stand on the earth
like a tree in a field, passing without haste
or regret toward what will be, my life
a patient willing descent into the grass.

[Chrysosistah]

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this divine glass, they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.

~~William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude

[Flannista]

In the Episcopal Church tradition, the Fourth Sunday of Lent (which is today) is "Mothering Sunday." I learned this at church earlier, when the rector referenced it in her sermon. She said today is also known as "Rejoicing Sunday."

I thought of Karen.

[Flannista]

MY DEAD FRIENDS
by Marie Howe

I have begun,
when I’m weary and can’t decide an answer to a bewildering question

to ask my dead friends for their opinion
and the answer is often immediate and clear.

Should I take the job? Move to the city? Should I try to conceive a child
in my middle age?

They stand in unison shaking their heads and smiling --
whatever leads
to joy, they always answer,

to more life and less worry. I look into the vase where Billy’s
ashes were --
it’s green in there, a green vase,

and I ask Billy if I should return the difficult phone call, and
he says, yes.
Billy’s already gone through the frightening door,

whatever he says I’ll do.

[Flannista]

WE ARE RUNNING
by Lucille Clifton

running and
time is clocking us
from the edge like an only
daughter.
our mothers stream before us,
cradling their breast in their
hands.
oh pray that what we want
is worth the running,
pray that what we're running
toward
is what we want.

[Flannista]

The Sassistas! annual celebration honoring Karen, with Karen's favorite KFC food and lovely bottle of champagne, courtesy of frida's husband!:

http://www.sassistas.com/sassistas_our_dish_on_the/2010/14/Karen_celebration.jpg