<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Thank you Nancy <div>For both pieces. </div><div>With love,</div><div>Isobel Bishop <br><br><div id="AppleMailSignature" dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div><div dir="ltr"><br>On 13 Jan 2020, at 6:25 pm, PAUL SCHRIJNEN via OE <<a href="mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net">oe@lists.wedgeblade.net</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">magnificent… both joke and poem…<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">thank you.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Paul</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 12 Jan 2020, at 23:18, Nancy Trask via Dialogue <<a href="mailto:dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net" class="">dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div class=""><div dir="auto" class="">First the amusing anecdote... from Karamo Brown of Queer Eye fame:</div></div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">Karamo: You need not worry about death, you should worry about what state you’re in.</div><div dir="auto" class="">Jonathan Van Ness (in a horrified whisper): New Jersey!</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">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" class="">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" class="">When great trees fall, <span style="font-size:1.6rem" class="">rocks on distant hills shudder,
</span><span style="font-size:1.6rem" class="">lions hunker down
</span><span style="font-size:1.6rem" class="">in tall grasses,
</span><span style="font-size:1.6rem" class="">and even elephants
</span><span style="font-size:1.6rem" class="">lumber after safety.
</span></p><p style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:0px 0px 28px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;font-size:1.6rem" class="">When great trees fall
in forests,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">small things recoil into silence,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">their senses
eroded beyond fear.
</p><p style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:0px 0px 28px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;font-size:1.6rem" class="">When great souls die,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">the air around us becomes
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">light, rare, sterile.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">We breathe, briefly.<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">Our eyes, briefly,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">see with
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">a hurtful clarity.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">examines,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">gnaws on kind words
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">unsaid,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">promised walks
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">never taken.
</p><p style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:0px 0px 28px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;font-size:1.6rem" class="">Great souls die and
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">our reality, bound to
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">them, takes leave of us.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">Our souls,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">dependent upon their
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">nurture,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">now shrink, wizened.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">Our minds, formed
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">and informed by their
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">radiance,
fall away.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">We are not so much maddened
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">dark, cold
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">caves.
</p><p style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:0px 0px 28px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;font-size:1.6rem" class="">And when great souls die,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">after a period peace blooms,
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">slowly and always
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">irregularly. Spaces fill
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">with a kind of
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">soothing electric vibration.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">Our senses, restored, never
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">to be the same, whisper to us.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">”They existed. They existed.
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">We can be. Be and be
<br style="box-sizing:inherit" class="">better. For they existed.”</p><p style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:0px 0px 28px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;font-size:1.6rem" class="">― Maya Angelou</p></div><div dir="auto" class="">Grace and peace,</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">Nancy Trask</div><div dir="auto" class=""><a href="mailto:NLT462@gmail.com" class="">NLT462@gmail.com</a></div><div dir="auto" class=""><a href="mailto:Nancy50273@centurylink.net" class="">Nancy50273@centurylink.net</a></div><div dir="auto" class="">515 505 0456</div>
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