Poetry & Poets in Rags

The last issue of Poetry & Poets in Rags of 2008, and the big news in literary circles is the death of Harold Pinter. You will find pertinent links to this story in our News at Eleven section, in Great Regulars, and in Poetic Obituaries. Indeed, his impact is examined in our first headlining article, as well as the last obituary link.

There is much in between for your discovery. Thanks for clicking in, and have a wonderful new year.

Yours,
Rus

Our links:

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Rus Bowden · at 6:10 PM

of the second world war on pacifism, but these writers were all wartime children--[Adrian] Mitchell was born in 1932, [Harold] Pinter in 1930 and [Bernard] Crick in 1929--and all reacted by becoming pacifists. Pinter had his first traumatic confrontation with authority when he registered as a conscientious objector in 1948. Crick avoided national service by moving to North American universities. Mitchell did national service but said it "confirmed my natural pacifism", and he became one of the most doggedly pacifist writers in the country.

from The Guardian: In terms of spreading values, Mitchell mattered most

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Rus Bowden · at 6:09 PM

as [Seamus] Heaney may have been moved, with his generation, to wonder in the 1960s. The poet sees ghosts, and his poetry, when it began in him, was experienced as a "redemptive grace". There is, if not an afterlife, an "afterimage of life". This does not make him a theocratic defender of Ireland's Catholic Church, but it may be that he has followed a different course from those of its flocks who are now less faithful than they were once.

from The Times Literary Supplement: Seamus Heaney country

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Rus Bowden · at 6:08 PM

Any poem that takes nature as its locus must also be conscious, even in refusing, of being a hymn to it in its sickness. Since no poem can be written about nature in ignorance of its dereliction, nature poetry has become eco-poetry. We possess a new fact, new by its indisputability: nature does not belong to man, but man belongs to nature. This poetry doesn't necessarily mean a poem needs to be a rant against chainsaws--though why not?--but rather that it manages to connect the hidden interior of humans with their outer mapped world.

from The Guardian: Last order

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Rus Bowden · at 6:06 PM

the building of a truly humanist world, not a deranged one, not a fetishistic, hyper-individualistic, racist, sexist or mercantilist world, one without merciless exploitation by one class of another?

[Luis Delgado] Arria stresses that it has always been problematic in Latin America, indeed dangerous, to claim that politics can be formulated as poetry. In the past, there was a desire to use poetry and organise it into neatly settled territories of order and humility.

from Morning Star: The poetry of resistance

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Rus Bowden · at 6:06 PM

of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo lead to the anguished and angry question ". . .Why is our enemy/always dark-skinned/always surrendering an arm/& a leg for a tooth,/a child for an eye?"

Yusef Komunyakaa is a national cultural treasure, a poet whose depth of compassion and gift for the telling turn of phrase will guarantee him a distinguished place in the literary history of our times.

from The Post-Dispatch: Warhorses

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Rus Bowden · at 6:05 PM

is calm and plain-spoken, as in this snippet from the poem "Smile":

When I see a black man smiling
like that, nodding and smiling
with both hands visible, mouthing
"Yes, Officer," across the street,
I think of my father, who taught us
the words "cooperate," "officer,"
to memorize badge numbers,
who has seen black men shot at
from behind in the warm months north.

Ms. Alexander, who was born in Harlem and raised in Washington, has been on fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard.

from The New York Times: The Intersection of Poetry and Politics

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Rus Bowden · at 6:04 PM

I kept recalling these lines from Shakespeare: Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet, Which fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd, For our advantage, on the bitter cross. Actually, there is a total of three poems on Israel in [Jorge Luis] Borges's collection "In Praise of Darkness" (1969). All were later included in his "Obras Completas" (1994) I don't believe they have been rendered into English before. Herein are my versions. First, "To Israel".

from Forward: Borges's Zionist Bent: Newly Translated Poems

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Rus Bowden · at 6:03 PM

the popularity of the Baldus is attested by many reprints and no fewer than three extensively revised editions. By 1606 it had been translated into German, and the French edition of that year noted that it was a model for Folengo's contemporary, Rabelais. With a further dozen editions in the century following Folengo's death, it is surprising that it has taken nearly 500 years for Baldo to appear in English.

The burlesque epic opens with an appeal to the paunchy macaronic muses who are to be entrusted with the 25 books of the opus.

from The Guardian: Renaissance rapper

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Rus Bowden · at 6:03 PM

to his lover Lou during World War I have been published for the first time in Spain in a volume which, according to translator Marta Pino, "is the truest reflection of the poet's personality."

In letters that Apollinaire never dreamed would be published as a book, the author "tells all with complete sincerity, to such a degree that when they were published in France they caused a huge scandal and had censorship problems," Pino told Efe.

from Latin American Herald Tribune: Letters of Apollinaire To His Lover Lou Published for First Time in Spain

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Rus Bowden · at 6:00 PM

save [Osip] Mandelstam--though it is doubtful anyone could have--was fellow poet, and novelist, Boris Pasternak (author of "Doctor Zhivago"). Pasternak approached Nikolai Bukharin, a prominent Bolshevik and then editor of the daily newspaper Izvestia, but Bukharin, too, was on his way to becoming a non-person (and was executed in March 1938).

"Why didn't you come to me instead of Bukharin?" said [Josef] Stalin in an unexpected telephone call to Pasternak that was to become a traumatic event for the poet for the rest of his life. "If I were a poet and my friend were in trouble, I would do whatever I could to help him."

from The Japan Times: 'The noise of time' ensures that art's unbowed spirit is heard

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Rus Bowden · at 5:59 PM

Jay Ruzesky, Times Colonist

from The Times Colonist: Gathering Holly
also The Times Colonist: Weight by Terence Young
also The Times Colonist: Poetry to warm the wintry soul

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Rus Bowden · at 5:19 PM

the life force of spring "rules" and the pastures of Wales combust into lambs.

By the third stanza this overwhelming feeling of exuberant awe and abundance makes no sense, but sense or not what difference does it make, the world is still drunk with lambs.

The fourth stanza brings us back to earth, reminding us why Wales is drunk with lambs, the fall harvest of these creatures, the hangover of survival.

[by Jon Dressel]

Mountain Spring Song, Wales

from Walter Bargen: The Post-Dispatch: Missouri poets: Dressel's verse sings, if not his lambs

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Rus Bowden · at 5:18 PM

inseparable in facing any attacks on our region.

Even though our governments may choose to be enemies, the people of India and Pakistan share a history, one deeply rooted not only in our similarities, our languages and religions, but also in our differences, notably Kashmir.

It is those similarities, rather than the differences, that led both countries to covet that one piece of land, and it is our joint refusal to deal with the Kashmir issue that brings violence to both our doorsteps.

from Fatima Bhutto: Al Jazeera English: S Asia neighbours' linked destinies

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Rus Bowden · at 5:17 PM

We're talking to each other in a language that we remember, that we didn't invent, that came to us, washing dishes and doing something like that.

Why is that moment in my life in London, and that moment of my childhood when I was 9 in Scrantion, why are they [?] on top of each other, and what do they have top do with each other?

from Jeffrey Brown: PBS: Newshour: Poetry Series: W.S. Merwin
also PBS: Newshour: Weekly Poem: 'Rain Light'

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Rus Bowden · at 5:17 PM

held in universal regard within the poetry community (Don Paterson famously dismissed his "big sweary outburst[s] about how crap the war in Iraq is" in his 2004 TS Eliot lecture, with a withering "anyone can do that"), he was nevertheless awarded the Wilfred Owen award for poetry, bestowed biennially on a writer seen as continuing Owen's tradition, for his 2003 pamphlet, WAR. Michael Grayer, chairman of the Wilfred Owen Association, described his poems as "hard-hitting and uncompromising, written with lucidity, clarity and economy".

Several of Pinter's poems first appeared in the Guardian. Read a selection, dating back to 1995, below.

Poem (17 January, 1995)

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: Pinter in verse: a selection of his poetry

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Rus Bowden · at 5:16 PM

By John Mark Eberhart

(for P.M. and S.L.E.)

The god of molecules sweats the small stuff.

from John Mark Eberhart: The Kansas City Star: 'The God of Molecules'

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Rus Bowden · at 5:15 PM

she possesses is herself--or her self, with "self" meaning "soul." She retains the power to "use or waste," "to keep or give" this only possession, and she retains this power always, "every day I live." Even "despite Time's winnowing," she retains this soul power. As the days, nights, and seasons pass, bringing their own special natural qualities, she remains aloof with the power of her own soul.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Christina Rossetti's The Thread of Life

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The lightning knows the "eye cannot speak," plus reasons are just not necessary when events so intimately coalesce.

Still, the speaker is aware that the human mind want reasons for everything, and it wants to talk about things that are ineffable despite the fact that such cannot be "contained--/--Of Talk." The mind is of the ilk of "Daintier Folk," whose less subtle mentality needs everything spelled out in verbiage.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Dickinson's "'Why do I love' you, Sir?"

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In the first quatrain of sonnet 103, the speaker exclaims with great enthusiasm that despite the Muse's value, nay even though her submissions be likened to "poverty," and her pride displayed, the true sonnet with its "argument, all bare" projects it own great worth.

Even with the speaker's "added praise," the honesty of a brilliant sonnet will shine forth.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 103

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The speaker then emphasizes again that the poem is three years old: three springs have turned into "yellow autumn," and the fragrance of "three April[s]" has been incinerated by "three hot Junes." But unlike the seasons that are swallowed up by other seasons, the freshness and "green" of the poem remain.

The speaker, as the reader has seen, remains obsessed with the aging process and dismayed that the human body undergoes decay and decrepitude; for this reason, the poet/speaker remains so enamored with his poems that do not undergo the human frailty of change.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 104

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However, the elder monk, through age and experience, has learned something that the young monks have yet to comprehend. He used to feel the way they do: "But now, beyond the things of sense,/Beyond occasions and events,/I know, through God's exceeding grace,/Release from form and time and space." Through the monastic discipline he has followed over the years, he has come to realize the Christ-Consciousness within his own soul.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Whittier's The Mystic's Christmas

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He asserts rhetorically through his question that no power could exert itself sufficiently to "blind" him to his "most grievous loss."

He then avers that having that thought of the fact that his beloved had died brought "the worst pang that sorrow ever bore." However, he then qualities that claim by stating that there was one--"one only"--other occasion when he had suffered such a grief.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Wordsworth's "Surprised by Joy"

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The speaker addresses his listener by asserting that the old year is gone, and the New Year is beginning. The old year had its "sorrow and laughter," and the New Year promises encouragement and hope, and its "song-voice" graces the senses with the command, "Refashion life ideally!"

The sentiment is universally grasped with many folks making New Year's resolutions.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Yogananda's "The Garden of the New Year"

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Rus Bowden · at 5:14 PM

by Pamela Porter

That last day of the year

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: First Snow by Pamela Porter

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In Passing
by Ted Kooser

From a half block off I see you coming,

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: In Passing by Ted Kooser

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little tree
by E. E. Cummings

little tree

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: little tree by E. E. Cummings

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Oniomania
by Peter Pereira

Not so much the desire

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Oniomania by Peter Pereira

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Proposals
by Cecilia Woloch

Mistaking me for someone else, he asked me to marry him. This has

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Proposals by Cecilia Woloch

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Song of the Wonderful Surprise
by Kelly Cherry

Start with the fact of space; fill it up

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Song of the Wonderful Surprise by Kelly Cherry

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The world in the year 2000
by Marge Piercy

It will be covered to a depth of seven

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The world in the year 2000 by Marge Piercy

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Rus Bowden · at 5:13 PM

strong emotion is to invest some real object with one's feelings, and then to let the object carry those feelings to the reader. Notice how the gloves in this short poem by José Angel Araguz of Oregon carry the heavy weight of the speaker's loss.

Gloves

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 196

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Rus Bowden · at 5:13 PM

To extend the water comparison further, he then imagines the moon also moving within an oceanic sky. He suggests the moon is love, "beauty," and mystery--all universal associations. The "small bird" and the moon both share the same fate as humans: all are "condemned" to struggle in "the open sea." Home is the familiar, and the sky is the natural world with all its powerful, uncertain forces.

[by Michael Poage]

Pelagic

from Denise Low: Ad Astra Poetry Project: Michael Poage (1945 - )

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Rus Bowden · at 5:12 PM

A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
O, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

This is one of the most famous stanzas in all of poetry, and it comes, of course, from "The Rubaiyyat," the book by the 12th century Persian mathematician and poet, Omar Khayyam. It illustrates the concept I would like to explore in today's column: Wine has long inspired poets and poetry in varied ways.

from Anthony Maulucci: Norwich Bulletin: Poets have long credited wine for inspiration, comfort

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Rus Bowden · at 5:11 PM

as the millennial year approached, I offered Slate readers "The Darkling Thrush" as a hard-to-equal model for responses to the turn of a millennium.

Now, at what many hope is the start of a new era, and in time for the new year, here again is Hardy's vividly described little bird with its blend of comedy and pathos.

from Robert Pinsky: Slate: "The Darkling Thrush"

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Rus Bowden · at 5:11 PM

that she'd written such a reflective poem in such a short space of time. And it was just reflecting on the idea of thinking about people that you've lost during the year at Christmastime, and it can be a sad time as well as a happy time.

from Michael Rosen: The Guardian: Reading Aloud with Michael Rosen: Christmas messages

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Rus Bowden · at 5:10 PM

in which the spirit of translation--the spirit, in fact, of the luminous conversation between Edward FitzGerald and Omar Khayyám--presides over public affairs, especially those in the Middle East. "Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,/Before we too into the Dust descend;/Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,/Sans wine, sans Song, sans Singer and--sans End!"

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Books blog: Poem of the week

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Rus Bowden · at 5:09 PM

in late 1963," [Philip] Norman writes about the early bloom of Beatlemania, "was not just a pop group more extraordinarily and unstoppably successful than any before. It was the new definition of 'pop group' they had created, something closer to the Marx Brothers than any forerunners like the Blue Caps or Shadows--a gang laughingly on the run from overblown adulation and desire, a brotherhood that in the brightest glare of publicity still kept its own intriguing secrets, the ultimate impenetrable clique."

from David L. Ulin: Los Angeles Times: 'John Lennon: The Life,' by Philip Norman

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Rus Bowden · at 5:07 PM

who can say the same, or whose conduct is consistent with such a profession! We are now become so much Englishmen, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Spaniards, or Germans, that we are no longer citizens of the world; so much the natives of one particular spot, or members of one petty society, that we no longer consider ourselves as the general inhabitants of the globe, or members of that grand society which comprehends the whole human kind.

from Daily Times: Purple Patch: On national prejudices --Oliver Goldsmith

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Rus Bowden · at 5:07 PM

writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. He was the youngest recipient of the award, and still retains that distinction today. After receiving the prestigious award, Kipling continued to write poetry and stories, although less prolifically; the collection "Rewards and Fairies" (1910) included Kipling's best-known poem "If."

from findingDulcinea: Happy Birthday: Rudyard Kipling, Author of "Kim" and "The Jungle Book"

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Rus Bowden · at 5:05 PM

by Remi Kanazi

I never knew death until I saw the bombing of a refugee camp

from MR Zine: Remi Kanazi, "A Poem for Gaza"

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Rus Bowden · at 5:04 PM

by Richard Wilbur

from The New Yorker: Poetry: Anterooms

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Trismegistus
[by Richard Wilbur]

from The New Yorker: Poetry: Trismegistus

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A Sensible Life
by Liz Waldner

from The New Yorker: Poetry: A Sensible Life

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Rus Bowden · at 5:03 PM

A Lesson Learned

Though I used to believe

from Portsmouth Herald News: Poem: A Lesson Learned

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Rus Bowden · at 5:02 PM

question, if a mother's love is not enough to prevent war, then what is? When she writes,--"before we became I and thou," she is perhaps making reference to Nixon's Quaker heritage--and the irony of a man with Quaker roots leading a nation at war. Although Savage ends her poem with the unanswered question: "Why hasn't that been enough?" there is hopefulness in her poem that perhaps we might finally come to recognize the futility of war.

from Portsmouth Herald News: Poetry Hoot on tap for Jan. 7

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Rus Bowden · at 5:01 PM

This at first may seem counterintuitive, as he is the husband of bestselling literary novelist Zadie Smith. But upon reading either of his collections, one quickly gets a sense of man's inherent desire to be on his own. "Go home. I haven't slept alone/in weeks and need to reach across/the sheets to find not warmth but loss," Laird writes in "Aubade," a poem from his 2006 début, To a Fault. The title of that book would thus suggest that we do things, especially in relationships, that reveal our flaws, that make us contemptible to significant others.

from Powells: Review-A-Day: Poetry of Resentment

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Rus Bowden · at 5:00 PM

by Megan Buchanan Cherry

okay, I can understand

from The Sun Magazine: Poetry: A New And Fervent Domesticity Has Seized Me

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Rus Bowden · at 4:53 PM

prolonged physical meltdown, scrapped a computer career to follow his muse. His poetry is a delightful cross between Ogden Nash and Dr. Seuss:

The Bunny and the Polar Bear
by Sheldon Biber

from Morristown Green: Sheldon Biber, poet: 1935-2008
also Barry Louis Polisar: Sheldon Biber

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Rus Bowden · at 4:52 PM

wrote in her journal. "But it did not stop me from giving love. Most of my patients are dead, but not in my heart. They will live forever. "

Mrs. Bowles treasured a scrapbook filled with more than 200 letters and poems from patients' families. But as she comforted their sorrows, her spirit often sagged with longing for the faces in the family photos hanging in her Henrico County home.

from Richmond Times-Dispatch: Hospital volunteer Maria Bowles dies

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Rus Bowden · at 4:52 PM

ranks devoting her life to teaching thousands of students died early Christmas Day.

Aileen Creighton, dean emeritus with the college's Division of Arts and Sciences, was 97.

Creighton began in the library and worked as assistant registrar, in the fourth year the school was open, before World War II. She later joined the English department as a professor. Creighton became chairwoman of the English department and director of the Division of Humanities and dean of the Division of Arts and Sciences through 1980.

from Caller-Times: Del Mar innovator, namesake of plaza Creighton, 97, dies

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Rus Bowden · at 4:50 PM

of art, which graced the homes of friends and family. He wrote poetry. He danced a mean jitterbug in his day. In 1986, he retired from the United States Information Agency in Washington and relocated to Salisbury with his wife.

from The Daily Times: Dean D. Curry

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Rus Bowden · at 4:49 PM

with family and friends, and his hope and knowledge that those of us who remain will carry on, working to create a better world for everyone. He expressed his lifelong love of poetry, and his message to all, as written in one of his poems.

(Excerpt from) A Candle for Christmas (1977)

from Crossville Chronicle: William E. Evans

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Rus Bowden · at 4:49 PM

permission by his translator, Roger Lydon, we publish an excerpt from the last and seventh canto of his work Night/Die Nacht: Seven Cantos, 2001, with an English translation by Alan MacDougall and Roger Lydon, a cycle of poems inspired by Aristide Maillol's bronze statue "La nuit"/"The Night," and dedicated to Richard's two daughters. To see the full canto, go to independent.com/cantovii.

After his retirement, Richard Exner lived in Munich and Berlin, publishing and reading his poetry to an ever widening circle of readers and listeners. He is survived by his partner, Annegret Stein, and two daughters, Bettina Exner Mara and Antonia Exner.

Canto VII: The Last Night

from The Santa Barbara Independent: Richard Exner 1929--2008

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Rus Bowden · at 4:48 PM

was a man of many parts. He was a professional actor, poet, and even, a painter. He was a man in love with arts generally.

In one of his most creative roles in films, Fatoba was a white-garment priest in O le ku, a Yoruba movie produced by Mainframe, where he gave a scintillating performance.

from Nigerian Tribune: For Femi Fatoba, renowned actor, academic, it's goodnight

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Rus Bowden · at 4:47 PM

he told The Bee then, "I think he's great, because he's black. Because the white people thought the Negro would never be promoted. I think it's beautiful."

Influenced by civil rights leader Booker T. Washington, who once spoke to his third-grade class, and later by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. [George] Francis embraced equality without anger.

He often dramatically recited his favorite poem, "The Black Man's Plea for Justice," but he never taught his children bigotry or prejudice, said his daughter Lelia Francis Larue.

from The Sacramento Bee: Nation's oldest man, 112, dies in Sacramento

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Rus Bowden · at 4:47 PM

in various departments of radio, particularly music.

Saleem Gilani introduced several new voices in the fields of music, announcement and comparing, raising the standard of radio. Late Gilani was also a poet and author of several books.

from The News International: PM condoles death of Saleem

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Rus Bowden · at 4:46 PM

included a poem. The last of those poems arrived in friends' mailboxes in the last few days. It concludes:

"And aren't you glad the election's done,

from The Bellingham Herald: Barney Goltz, former legislator, dies at 84

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Rus Bowden · at 4:45 PM

readings were always a highlight at poetry festivals.

"He was just riveting," O'Keefe said, adding that Jaramillo would memorize and read poems in English and Spanish.

He also said Jaramillo was a proponent of using technology in the classroom, including during one of his more popular classes, "Violence in Colombia," when his students sat through a video-conferencing session with other students in Bogota, Colombia.

from Newark Advocate: Man known for teaching methods

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Rus Bowden · at 4:44 PM

Mrs. [Helen T.] Kadlec also devoted much energy to the nutrition-course lesson plans she taught for many years at Baltimore County senior citizen centers.

from The Baltimore Sun: Helen T. Kadlec, lover of 'all things domestic'

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Rus Bowden · at 4:44 PM

who loved poetry, music, sculpting, art, and growing large sunflowers in his front lawn, died on Dec. 18 in Bryn Mawr.

from The Philadelphia Inquirer: Denison S. Knewstub, 67, arborist

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Rus Bowden · at 4:43 PM

She wrote two novels, many short stories and beautiful poems. She also loved playing the piano and writing songs. She enjoyed Scrabble, doing crosswords and being outdoors.

from Great Falls Tribune: Lucille M. Malcott

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Rus Bowden · at 4:43 PM

pastor of Redeemer's United Church of Christ in Littlestown.

During his leisure time, Pastor Jim penned Christian songs, some of which were recorded and produced on a CD. He also wrote poetry, and enjoyed photography.

from Staten Island News: Rev. James Martin, 60

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Rus Bowden · at 4:42 PM

battling leukemia, Gerry Meisenhelder turned to a grandson and began dictating verse.

One more connection with the world to be recorded.

Since he began writing poetry in high school, Meisenhelder found and explored one avenue after another for these connections.

A chess player. A painter. A veteran of the second World War. A drawer. A creator of stained glass windows. A father to eight daughters. An actor. A playwright. A runner. A thinker.

Most of all, a poet.

from York Daily Record: York's first poet laureate dies: Gerry Meisenhelder never tired of exploring life

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Rus Bowden · at 4:41 PM

as a Marine during the Vietnam War, for which he received a Purple Heart and an Air Medal.

He later became an educator and a poet, working as a teacher for more than 20 years.

from Palisadian-Post: Raymond Nasser, 61

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Rus Bowden · at 4:40 PM

St. Michael's Catholic Church, loved dancing and playing the accordion organ, and kept alive some lost arts such as calligraphy and quilling. An avid sports fan, she enjoyed watching hockey, baseball, football and NASCAR. She also enjoyed reading and writing poetry, the outdoors, flowers and gardening

from Post-Bulletin: Barbara J. 'Barb' Noble--West Concord

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Rus Bowden · at 4:39 PM

the community always enjoyed his exhuberant love of Alaska; his visits to Eaglecrest and the daily walks along Sandy Beach and the Treadwell trails. Everyone appreciated Sig's sense of humor and fond memories of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota and vast array of experiences throughout Alaska.

Sig was a skilled writer and poet--and enjoyed recalling rhymes he learned as a youth. "Be the labor, great or small--do it well or not at all!"--was an admonition he often shared with colleagues within various organizations in which he served.

from Juneau Empire: Neighbors mailbox: Friend gives tribute to Sigurd T. Olson

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Rus Bowden · at 4:39 PM

Curtis High School in 1964. In her spare time, she enjoyed gardening, writing poetry and following current events.

from Staten Island Advance: Angela Paolillo, 62

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Rus Bowden · at 4:38 PM

of the International Order of Ahepa, an accomplished poet, an avid golfer and pool player, and a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.

from Port Clinton News Herald: Peter V. Paulus

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