Thanks, Nancy, for sharing the poetry. Ellie :) -----Original Message----- From: Nancy Trask via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: Nancy Trask <nlt462@gmail.com>; Order Ecumenical Community <oe@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@gmail.comNancy50273@centurylink.net515 505 0456_______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net