What Really Matters?
I’m stepping away from my sixteen-year involvement with the Community Reporter in the midst of my grief over the death of Miriam, my partner in so many things for so many years. And so, an extra grief enters, for my years with the community and its newspaper added up to more than an editor’s job or an administrator’s or an advertising salesperson’s.
The paper was and is the reflection of our neighborhood. Each of us has come here — or stayed here for generations after our ancestors came here — and made our contributions to the common unity, the growth and development, the spirit of the place, the creative and emotional and spiritual life that keeps us here, nourishes us, provides us ways to appreciate what we have and contribute what we can. Let’s take Editor Damian Goebel’s invitations seriously and become part of the “community of reporters” that we’ve been building for more than a half-century.
Miriam loved the West End, chose our home here twenty years ago, and placed many of her evocative poems here. In her memory I’d like to share one of them with you.
A Couple of Eagles at Crosby Farm
Miriam Myers Rothstein
You’d have to know what you were looking for
in the bleached-out remains of the dead tree,
summer’s chorus of cattails and reeds
haunting the marshland, redwing
and swallow doing what is necessary,
the parade goes by.
The two eagles just sit there
side by side on a bony branch
biding their time, luminous
but cold reflections blending in,
pleas and sorrow, the hour goes by.
No need to shake things up on this terrain,
to answer for their actions,
the two eagles staring back at us
unmoved, unmoving,
the very thought of giving up
on love goes by.
I’m offering a copy of Miriam’s book, Object Constancy, to anyone who would like one. Call me at 651-587-8859.
