<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Thank you so much for this Ed. So enjoy her poetry. What a gift! <div>I just watched her video that you sent where she reads her poetry. </div><div>What a down to earth and vibrant legacy she leaves behind. </div><div><span style="font-size:-apple-system-body">🙏 Blessings to you and Lynne. 💖</span></div><div><span style="font-size:-apple-system-body">Taylor </span></div><div><span style="font-size:-apple-system-body"><br></span></div><div><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Nov 26, 2024, at 4:06 PM, Ed Balldinger via Thespiritexpress <thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><font size="4">This is the poem I read before class today. Kathryn is a beloved friend of ours who passed away last Monday, November 18. She was a Professor Emerita of Literature at California State University, Sacramento who founded The International Readers of Homer in 1998. Although Lyn & I came to know her over the past 25 years or more, she became a dearly cherished friend - extended family. She was funny, inquisitive, curious and extremely articulate. </font><span style="font-size:large">We miss her, but will hold her in our hearts always. </span></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">I'm also including a few links - one to a YouTube video of her reading her poetry in her backyard for her 90th birthday, and one to The International Readers of Homer. Another link is to her book, "The Little Chapel in Donegal." </font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><span style="font-size:large">Thank you for the opportunity to share this poem with you. </span><font size="4"></font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx1YJJecdsI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx1YJJecdsI</a></font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4"><a href="https://www.internationalreadersofhomer.org/copy-of-history" target="_blank">https://www.internationalreadersofhomer.org/copy-of-history</a></font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4"><a href="https://www.randomlanepress.com/product/little-chapel-in-donegal/" target="_blank">https://www.randomlanepress.com/product/little-chapel-in-donegal/</a></font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">Blessings, </font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">~ Ed </font></div><div><br></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><br></div><div><p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><u><span style="font-size:18pt">Worse Than Your Burial </span></u></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">This is almost worse than
your burial – </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">a paralysis setting into </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">a nomenclature, not yours –
</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">barely suggesting. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">I didn’t think I’d cry </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">if I began this anger </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">and yet I am going there –
</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">syllable, breathy pause. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">I think I have never known
anyone, </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">anyone more alive, more
subtly </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">gaining wisdom, more desperately
</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">losing it. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">I will have to let you go </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">into your absence all
alone. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">I am unable to follow. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">Each time I retrieve a
memory</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">I am grateful at first –
then not so </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">as it solidifies into Not
You. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">I want your quickness, </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">not a rerun motion picture</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">beginning its weird death
rattle. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">I hate memory and its
fraudulence, </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">its disgusting clever
pretense </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">as much as I hate your
death. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">I don’t want this phony
fixity. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">I want your iridescence. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">~
Kathryn Hohlwein </span></p>
<p style="text-indent:0.5in;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">from
<i>“The Little Chapel in Donegal”</i></span></p></div></div>
</div>
<div><Black & White Kathryn_Deborah Rhea.jpg></div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>Thespiritexpress mailing list</span><br><span>Thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org</span><br><span>https://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/thespiritexpress</span><br></div></blockquote></div></body></html>