[00:00:00] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Two of our poets sent us very different views of a wake. Both views allow us to see how this ritual can be celebratory as well as devastating. First up comes from our Tennessee poet and professor, Daniel Gleason from Bryan College. Here is his "Toast at a Wake":
[00:00:20] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To your eyes, to their light and to their color.
[00:00:23] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To your ability to see every shade of color.
[00:00:27] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To pastels, neons, warms, cools, watercolors.
[00:00:31] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To dyed eggs and to the High Museum of Art.
[00:00:35] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To your kitchen, to the kitchen work
[00:00:38] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: you did in countless kitchens in others' homes.
[00:00:41] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To keeping dirty dishes on one side of the sink.
[00:00:44] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To boiling eggs for precisely 13 minutes.
[00:00:48] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To mashed potatoes and gravy, to butter .
[00:00:51] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To your mother's squash casserole recipe.
[00:00:54] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To color schemes in culinary arts.
[00:00:57] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To the day you returned to the kitchen
[00:00:59] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: after all the years, after all the treatments --
[00:01:03] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: trazadone, doxepin, electroshock, witch hazel.
[00:01:07] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To knowing that you might not have returned, but did.
[00:01:12] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To seeing light and color return to your eyes.
[00:01:15] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: To resurrection. To you I raise this toast.
[00:01:19] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: See us.
[00:01:25] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Our second reading comes from Jennifer Campbell, an English professor from Buffalo, New York. Here's her poem "Deciding to Attend the Wake" -- for A.B.
[00:01:35] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: It's not about whether I'd like
[00:01:37] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: to be there, but do I have the right
[00:01:40] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: to step into the tsunami of grief.
[00:01:43] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Signposts holding me back:
[00:01:45] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Young. Suicide. Jumped .
[00:01:49] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: The prodigal son rent the earth
[00:01:51] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: in two one sunny morning,
[00:01:53] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: traffic halted by the divide.
[00:01:56] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Now a whole town in line
[00:01:58] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: to tug you above the waves,
[00:02:00] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: something I am not strong enough
[00:02:02] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: to do having barely survived
[00:02:05] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: the initial blast. I have one living son.
[00:02:09] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Even now, his light pries open my eyes
[00:02:12] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: every day; his breathing calms mine
[00:02:15] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: every night. How can I tell you
[00:02:18] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: the cleaving is irreparable,
[00:02:20] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: aftershocks expected?
[00:02:23] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Little comfort in knowing the feet
[00:02:24] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: will still move forward, even when
[00:02:27] Deirdre Neilen, PhD: there's no certainty of ground.