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