I don't know how to read the signs

[wretchmuffin]

First the June 2008 issue of Harper's, about the Idaho couple who donate their time, boat, and equipment to search for drowning victims. The article started with this set of images:

Comments

[bulletslc]

Woah!!!!....WHAT?!!!??? He grew up in the same town I grew up in! Salmon, Idaho! My GOD....he read to us (my class) when I was around TEN years old!!!! He praised my poetry and I've got a signed to me personally copy of his book "Everything Goes Without Saying"!!! (he signed it "Amy DeLong, Poetry has not past or future - it is the present- what you are." --Bill

[wretchmuffin]

I'm so sorry. For you and for me.
How eerily apropos that poem is, though . . . thank you so much for posting it.

[bulletslc]

You are welcome. It really does feel odd to read my poem again in these circumstances....knowing where the original influence came from and all.

I really am still quite affected by this loss.....Strange as I didn't know him for longer than a couple of hours of reading/talking......but he was the first REAL poet to look at what I was writing and not only praise me for it, but be able to offer constructive criticism (to a CHILD....I wasn't even in my TEENS when I met him) that stuck and bettered the way I wrote. He spent a good deal of time with me that evening (or at least it seemed like he did in retrospect). Talking about poetry and "feeling" words. I guess when you are at that "tween" age you really do remember the things that affect you down to the bones of your soul (even if your conscious mind doesn't always retain it).

[rrhexis]

I have been thinking lately how quickly people who die are forgotten. Maybe that's how it should be. There are 6 billion, eight hundred and nineteen million, seven hundred and forty one thousand people (or so) on this planet and maybe that's, too many.

[wretchmuffin]

True enough, though I only want to lose the ones I don't know.

[gezellig_girl]

[wretchmuffin]

YES YES YES.

This is perfection. I love DC.

[fatal_emblem]

Hear, hear.

[wretchmuffin]

Thank you; and thank you for coming in and out the window.

[bulletslc]

Today I did a presentation at my work (Veterinary Hospital) about Feline Viruses and vaccinations. To preface my work I was originally going to sing "Everybody Wants to be a Cat" from the Aristocats as a sorta silly mood setter, but after finding out about Bill last night I looked through my book of his poetry and found one called "Black Cat" which I read in memoriam instead.

While it IS true there are soooooo many individuals on this earth....dying every second of the day/night.....our individual response to those births/deaths/lives is what makes our existance. I may have only known Bill for one day back when I was 10 or 11 years old, but his influence on my life was HUGE in retrospect. This "brief encounter/huge impact" idea is one that I TRY to keep in mind always. Who knows what small thing you do for negative or positive will impact someone's life forever. :-)

[wretchmuffin]

Oh my. How perfect.
You should maybe think about telling his wife about the effect he had (and maybe send her that poem from your earlier comment?) . . . it's the kind of thing I'd like my husband to know about me, when the time comes.

Judy Studebaker
2616 East 4000 North
Twin Falls, ID 83330

(They recovered his body Monday afternoon, by the way)

[bulletslc]

Woops forgot I'd mentioned this when I just replied to your earlier response....disregard the portion of my other response informing you of the reading...Ugh....my email isn't picking up lj responses right now.

I will copy down her information....and hopefully manage to compose an appropriate letter to her. (God, I'm tearing up again!) This may take a few hours to do....I have tomorrow off so I'll be able to spend some time with a tribute to him to send to her. Thank you so much for the information!!