I Must Do To Be I must do to be, Things move, change waits, Words interrupt, hands interpret, Bodies heal, thoughts roam. Before you, after me, Sands drift to form dunes and valleys, Swirling shapes shift with times motion, And like water, are not silent. Obedient children must speak, They play guard over brown uneven…
Category: death
OBSERVATIONS #15 – 11.16.24
AUTUMN RED Before hibernal cold, after vernal heat, as summer comes to close, More darkness than daylight soon will cover our planet host. Radiant leaves, ripe fruit, fall from trees. Celebrate! Rhythmic cycles of life to death, grow naturally to decompose. Earth’s tilted path, Autumn’s angles unequal in length, Sunlight threads scattered perceptions, Run fingers…
OBSERVATIONS #14 – 11.10.24
Cast A NetCast a net into the sky,Toss into the white not blue,Sky that feels like water looks.Cast a net into the sky,Casually pull apart its soft conceal,Uncover fields of pearlescent fluffs washed in light.Cast a net into the sky,It’s weight separates the violet flower from pod,Releasing milky sap, the recipe for clouds of butterflies.Cast…
Roses are red, water is cleansing
She walked along the riverbank Heart drenched with sorrow Eyes searching for a savior Mind wandering through flashing life memories She wore white for this occasion As if she were arriving for a baptism Only she was preparing for her ending She was over it This thing called the human experience The more she thought…
Prayer and offerings
Family gathering for the living and deceased Table spread with savory foods, rich bread, and sweets A voided space between realms filled with laughter Candles lit for prayer, protection, and to guide our loved ones along the way Water poured into fancy glasses for libations and hydration Music playing to raise the frequency of the…
Haunting, Haunted, Haunts
by Jessie Lynn McMains All houses wherein men have lived and diedAre haunted houses.—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from “Haunted Houses” Every house is a haunted house. The things which haunt them might truly be ghosts, or they may just be the ghosts of memory. They may exist independently of us, may reside in the pipes and…
“I guess there’s just a meanness in this world” (Murder Ballads and Death Songs)
by Jessie Lynn McMains This song is about two people who go into the woods, but only one of them comes out. That’s my favorite kind of song. I have a few of those in my songbook. Rennie Sparks, The Handsome Family There’s a lot of contention about murder ballads (and other adjacent death songs:…
A Field Guide to Ghosts and Cryptids of Southeast Wisconsin
by Jessie Lynn McMains If you’re anything like me, the start of spooky season has given you the urge to seek out haunted places and creepy creatures. Actually, if you’re anything like me, you have the urge to seek out those things year-round, but I digress… Wisconsin has a wealth of ghosts and monsters. What…
Who Is This Masked Man?
Over the past year, we’ve worn a lot of masks to prevent spread of a virus, and over our lifetimes, we put on many masks of a metaphorical-kind to guide us through social situations, whether in the workplace, family gatherings, or at parties.
Ask a Mortician
Thank you so much to those folks who attended the obituary writing workshops. Great information and wonderful personal stories made it an event to remember. Part of being a funeral director is the ability to disseminate information in a way that is direct, honest and without judgement. My next workshops, offered on October 19th and…
ArtRoot Writer-In-Residence 