Author Topic: my friend R (peaceful)  (Read 5542 times)

Hopalong

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #30 on: August 17, 2006, 09:18:10 PM »
((((((((((((((((((Moon, PP, Stormy, Adrift, Beth, H&H, Portia, TT, Really, MS))))))))))))))))))))))))

Thanks.

I have been sleeping soooooooooooooooo deeply, like I got decked with a sledgehammer.

Happy news on another thread.

love y'all,
Hops
"That'll do, pig, that'll do."

Sela

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #31 on: August 18, 2006, 12:12:41 AM »
(((((((((((((((((((((((((Hoppy)))))))))))))))))))))))

So sorry for the loss of your dear friend.   I'm glad she went peacefully and at her own home.  Thinking of you and keeping you in my prayers that you will meet again.

Sela

Hopalong

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #32 on: August 18, 2006, 12:41:09 AM »
Thank you, Sela.
If premature death can ever be beautiful, hers was.

I wish you could all see what she spent her last morning gazing at, the mountainside in sunlight.

Hops
"That'll do, pig, that'll do."

WRITE

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #33 on: August 18, 2006, 11:16:59 AM »
I have been sleeping soooooooooooooooo deeply

it's amazing isn't it. D H Lawrence wrote

And if tonight my soul may find her peace
in sleep, and sink in good oblivion,
and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower
then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created.


I wish you could all see what she spent her last morning gazing at, the mountainside in sunlight.

and that's a wonderful reminder- we can.

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))


Stormchild

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #34 on: August 27, 2006, 04:29:07 PM »
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

                W. H. Auden

[for Hops' friend D., bereaved]
The only way out is through, and the only way to win is not to play.

"... truth is all I can stand to live with." -- Moonlight52

http://galewarnings.blogspot.com

http://strangemercy.blogspot.com

http://potemkinsoffice.blogspot.com

Hopalong

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #35 on: August 27, 2006, 04:31:54 PM »
Ahh, Storm.
Thank you so much for doing this...I will share it w/D.

Auden caught the BIGness of grief.

Hops
"That'll do, pig, that'll do."

Stormchild

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #36 on: August 27, 2006, 08:57:27 PM »
"An Old-Fashioned Song"
                                 -John Hollander
                                 [<<Nous n'irons plus au bois>>, from an old French children's game]

No more walks in the wood:
The trees have all been cut
Down, and where once they stood
Not even a wagon rut
Appears along the path
Low brush is taking over.

No more walks in the wood;
This is the aftermath
Of afternoons in the clover
Fields where we once made love
Then wandered home together
Where the trees arched above,
Where we made our own weather
When branches were the sky.
Now they are gone for good,
And you, for ill, and I
Am only a passer-by.

We and the trees and the way
Back from the fields of play
Lasted as long as we could.
No more walks in the wood.
The only way out is through, and the only way to win is not to play.

"... truth is all I can stand to live with." -- Moonlight52

http://galewarnings.blogspot.com

http://strangemercy.blogspot.com

http://potemkinsoffice.blogspot.com

Hopalong

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #37 on: August 28, 2006, 03:15:43 PM »
It was a gorgeous service, about 300 people, friends of hers from many states, the Grammy singer's music and two local choruses, her art all over the sanctuary.
 
Everyone said such similar things, about how powerful R's presence was. Some of that came from growing up in Japan...an outsider's view of the culture and so many of our habits. She loved people without ever talking much about it, had an extraordinarily welcoming nature. One thing I said before I bawled my way through reading the poem was that I've never felt so accepted in my life.

Thank you for letting me share my grief here. I was so moved by this taciturn, forthright woman who lived so close to the land she loved, and painted...I wish I could share her paintings with you.

The service was a blessing. I could see how her father and brothers and so many relatives and friends were lifted, how everyone who knew and loved her were joined in gratitude for having been part of her life.

Hops
"That'll do, pig, that'll do."

Hopalong

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #38 on: August 28, 2006, 07:09:05 PM »
Hi Storm,
I want to thank you for the Hollander too.
You have good taste in poetry! I really appreciate the trouble you took.

(Wanted to mention too I've removed my poem...it felt good to share it here but as with the one a while ago, I prefer not leaving it up. Folks who've been around a while will recall.)

I just broke my boycott-Woody-Allen-because-of-Soon-Yi pledge to see a movie with a friend.
He annoys me as much as ever, clever or not. But it was good to not be alone.

Hops
"That'll do, pig, that'll do."

Stormchild

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #39 on: August 28, 2006, 08:31:51 PM »
hey hops, rats, ya took it down too soon. i caught it in the revised version while at work but can't post from there, and I wanted to look at it again tonight. Put it back? Pretty please?
The only way out is through, and the only way to win is not to play.

"... truth is all I can stand to live with." -- Moonlight52

http://galewarnings.blogspot.com

http://strangemercy.blogspot.com

http://potemkinsoffice.blogspot.com

Hopalong

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #40 on: August 28, 2006, 11:47:02 PM »
HI Storm,
I'll PM it to you (and anyone who likes).

love,
Hops
"That'll do, pig, that'll do."

Stormchild

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #41 on: August 29, 2006, 09:53:57 PM »
Hi Hops

FINALLY got back here. Been up since oh-very-dark-hundred, took car to shop before work and self to shop after work.

Thanks for PMing your poem. I am going to chat about it out here in public in front of God and everybody, though. :P

I don't know all the terminology, so I'll paraphrase where I have to. This is one powerful poem, and powerfully crafted... I like the way you begin, "Eyes let in light." and then build upon that with one visual after another that R, the artist, has let in - let into the canvas, let into your mind's eye, let into your memories...

Gorgeous use of alliteration and internal rhyme - Let in light... eyes and light... leap at the knees of... trees... bales bent like bison... richly rough... chuckling at the cold... the words are like music here. Lovely....

and heartfelt, too. Is that hawk crying freedom far off the canvas her sharp-eyed soul now free to soar?

Beautiful, hops. just beautiful. Technically gorgeous, a feast for the logophile, and all held together with feeling that reaches off the page and shakes you.

Thanks for sharing this.
The only way out is through, and the only way to win is not to play.

"... truth is all I can stand to live with." -- Moonlight52

http://galewarnings.blogspot.com

http://strangemercy.blogspot.com

http://potemkinsoffice.blogspot.com

Hopalong

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Re: my friend R (peaceful)
« Reply #42 on: August 29, 2006, 10:10:19 PM »
Oh, Stormy. You got my faucet going again.
You got it. (Hawk...everything...I meant to convey.)

thank you so much for that deep reading.
You'll never know how much I appreciate it.

Hops
"That'll do, pig, that'll do."