<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Wow, Ed! This poem is so impactful, so well crafted and moving, what a wordsmith you are! Thank you for sharing this!<br><br>Roz<br><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPad</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Dec 21, 2021, at 2:10 PM, Ed Balldinger via Thespiritexpress <thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><font size="4">Dear Fellow Beings born of love, living in love and dying to love - </font><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">Thank you for engaging in the experience of sharing my poem with you today. As I said in my preliminary remarks, it's a poem written over time, which is what Robert Bly says he often did with his poems - write a poem, put it in a drawer, pull it out after some time, carve a little more, then back in the drawer it goes for a while, etc...! This poem told me it was the right time to finish it and lay it to rest, or wake it up for new beginnings to come. </font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">It's a poem woven between the possibilities of our strength and fragility; between ourselves and others. It's a small glimpse into the intimate as we <i>"wrassle"</i> with the inanimate. <br></font><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">Blessings to all in this time of year, the shortest day, turning into a new season, a new phase, a new year. </font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">~ Ed Balldinger (Scoctavius of Nublin; Scott)</font></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><u><span style="font-size:16pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Forging
Iron </span></u></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">We
are the hot steaming iron forging various</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">moratoriums
in our own worlds of strength. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Whatever
we straighten will certainly return </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">as
it curls in a rising mist of mystery tonight. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Will
you tell me all your ancient truths?</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">I’ll
tell you mine and we’ll see how the vapors mingle.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Is
it too late to see where this line of conversation</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">crosses
as another string of words are strung up</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">higher
than the sun in our eyes? </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">An
amalgamation of American cold war offspring,</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">we
are fused in our infatuation with love life; </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">cross-stitched
together forever in some poetic tongue;</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">vow-bound
and boundlessly wowed by crowds</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">overflowing
edges as we dwindle back to the dust</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:0.5in;margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">from which we came. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">I
am the wilting madness here in my inflexibility</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">kindled
by a strange fire I work to keep lit, </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">as
if burnt sacrifice were a mere offering of truce </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">searing
our souls in one syncopating blaze. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">“Keeper
of the Flame,”</span></i><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">
or so I’ve been called. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">The
bent steel clanks coldly against </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">a
creative version of my own lost control.
</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">I
crave social interface like a warm scarf,</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">a
long-flowing tail of a crackling whip behind me. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">(With
a tip of the cap to Robert Bly)</span></i></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><a name="_Hlk37055206"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Monotype Corsiva"">Edgar Z. Balldinger </span></a></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Monotype Corsiva"">
June 9, 2017 – December 21, 2021</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i><span style="font-family:"Monotype Corsiva""> © Nublin’s Pub, 20</span></i><i><span style="font-family:"Monotype Corsiva"">17-2021</span></i></p></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div>
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