<div><div dir="auto">First the amusing anecdote... from Karamo Brown of Queer Eye fame:</div></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Karamo:  You need not worry about death, you should worry about what state you’re in.</div><div dir="auto">Jonathan Van Ness (in a horrified whisper):  New Jersey!</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">And the poetry:</div><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline" style="box-sizing:inherit;font-size:3.6rem;margin:0px 0px 10px;font-family:Raleway,"Lucida Sans Unicode","Lucida Grande",sans-serif;font-weight:400;line-height:1.2">When Great Trees Fall

<br style="box-sizing:inherit">by Maya Angelou</h1><div class="entry-content" itemprop="text" style="box-sizing:inherit;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:"Droid Serif","Palatino Linotype","Book Antiqua",Palatino,serif;font-size:14px" dir="auto"><p style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:0px 0px 28px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;font-size:1.6rem">When great trees fall, <span style="font-size:1.6rem">rocks on distant hills shudder,
</span><span style="font-size:1.6rem">lions hunker down
</span><span style="font-size:1.6rem">in tall grasses,
</span><span style="font-size:1.6rem">and even elephants
</span><span style="font-size:1.6rem">lumber after safety.

</span></p><p style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:0px 0px 28px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;font-size:1.6rem">When great trees fall
in forests,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">small things recoil into silence,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">their senses
eroded beyond fear.

</p><p style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:0px 0px 28px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;font-size:1.6rem">When great souls die,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">the air around us becomes
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">light, rare, sterile.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">We breathe, briefly.<br style="box-sizing:inherit">Our eyes, briefly,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">see with
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">a hurtful clarity.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">examines,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">gnaws on kind words
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">unsaid,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">promised walks
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">never taken.
</p><p style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:0px 0px 28px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;font-size:1.6rem">Great souls die and
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">our reality, bound to
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">them, takes leave of us.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">Our souls,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">dependent upon their
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">nurture,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">now shrink, wizened.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">Our minds, formed
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">and informed by their
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">radiance,
fall away.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">We are not so much maddened
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of<br style="box-sizing:inherit">dark, cold
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">caves.

</p><p style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:0px 0px 28px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;font-size:1.6rem">And when great souls die,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">after a period peace blooms,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">slowly and always
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">irregularly. Spaces fill
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">with a kind of
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">soothing electric vibration.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">Our senses, restored, never
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">to be the same, whisper to us.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">”They existed. They existed.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">We can be. Be and be
<br style="box-sizing:inherit">better. For they existed.”</p><p style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:0px 0px 28px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;font-size:1.6rem">― Maya Angelou</p></div><div dir="auto">Grace and peace,</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Nancy Trask</div><div dir="auto"><a href="mailto:NLT462@gmail.com">NLT462@gmail.com</a></div><div dir="auto"><a href="mailto:Nancy50273@centurylink.net">Nancy50273@centurylink.net</a></div><div dir="auto">515 505 0456</div>