By Gwendolyn Brooks

I ran across this again this week. I remember submitting it for a poetry project in high school and it is another poem that has always stuck in my mind. I think it means more to me now than it did even then.

Corners of the Curving Sky

Our earth is round, and, among other things
That means that you and I can hold completely different
Points of view and both be right.
The difference of our positions will show
Stars in your window. I cannot even imagine.
Your sky may burn with light,
While mine, at the same moment,
Spreads beautiful to darkness.
Still, we must choose how we separately corner
The circling universe of our experience
Once chosen, our cornering will determine
The message of any star and darkness we
encounter.

Bye Bye Birdie

Today my great Aunt Jane lost her will to live another day with ALS. As much as we all will miss her here on this earth, I am grateful that a beautiful lady has once again regained her dignity and peace. Our family tree has few branches so every lost bloom is even more heartfelt and shockingly apparent when absent. Though we have drifted away from that part of the family since my father's abrupt retreat to the other side of the country, they will always be ingrained in our hearts, souls and memories. So farewell Birdie, may you once again run with the sunshine on your face on those skinny legs that earned you the nickname you carried for your entire life! May your heart be free of regrets and resentment and may you forever reside in peace knowing that we all loved you, love you and will never forget you. In fact...every time I catch a whiff of acrylics and fresh cut wood at a crafts fair, I will think of you! Every time I hear a lady with a sweet southern drawl, I will remember you! Every time I close my eyes and picture you it will be with a smile and a good hearty laugh recalling all the stories about your childhood, your stubbornness and ability to agitate my grandmother like no other and your undeniable adoration for me when I was a small child and mine in return for you. Enjoy those wings you earned today, fly high and tell everyone we said we love them!

Dirge without Music
Edna St. Vincent Millay

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.

Crowned with lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.

Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.

A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,

A formula, a phrase remains, --- but the best is lost.
The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,

They are gone.

They have gone to feed the roses.

Elegant and curled is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom.

I know. But I do not approve.

More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave

Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;

Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.

I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.