[Oe List ...] Poetry about death - and an amusing anecdote

[Ellie Stock]

Thanks, Nancy, for sharing the poetry.
Ellie :)


-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Trask via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net>
Cc: Nancy Trask <nlt462 at gmail.com>; Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Sun, Jan 12, 2020 05:19 PM
Subject: [Oe List ...] Poetry about death - and an amusing anecdote


First the amusing anecdote... from Karamo Brown of Queer Eye fame:
Karamo:  You need not worry about death, you should worry about what state you’re in.Jonathan Van Ness (in a horrified whisper):  New Jersey!
And the poetry:
When Great Trees Fall


by Maya Angelou

When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.



When great trees fall
in forests,

small things recoil into silence,

their senses
eroded beyond fear.



When great souls die,

the air around us becomes

light, rare, sterile.

We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,

see with

a hurtful clarity.

Our memory, suddenly sharpened,

examines,

gnaws on kind words

unsaid,

promised walks

never taken.


Great souls die and

our reality, bound to

them, takes leave of us.

Our souls,

dependent upon their

nurture,

now shrink, wizened.

Our minds, formed

and informed by their

radiance,
fall away.

We are not so much maddened

as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of
dark, cold

caves.



And when great souls die,

after a period peace blooms,

slowly and always

irregularly. Spaces fill

with a kind of

soothing electric vibration.

Our senses, restored, never

to be the same, whisper to us.

”They existed. They existed.

We can be. Be and be

better. For they existed.”

― Maya Angelou
Grace and peace,
Nancy TraskNLT462 at gmail.comNancy50273@centurylink.net515 505 0456_______________________________________________
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