Dear
Family and Friends,
Seven
years ago Francis and I were interviewed for a TV program on Portland Community
Television called “The Second Act.” It’s a program sponsored by the Maine
Senior Guide, to celebrate “the gifts and vitality of people in the second half
of their lives.”
I
agreed again to be interviewed for this “Second Act” program, by myself this
time, on the subject of my first book: Sing to Me and I Will Hear You
– The Poems.
It’s
8 minutes long. I’m the last of three people being interviewed during
this half hour program.
People
from out of town
can view it here: http://ctn5.org/shows/second-act/second-act-5358
Local
people
can view it on their TV’s next week, as well - Thursdays at 11 AM on Channel
5. It will also air randomly on Channel 2. The
upcoming CH 2 airings are: 9/9
11A; 9/10 8A and 11A; 9/11 8A and 8P; 9/13 2P; 9/14 7P; 9/15
11A
The interviewer is Bill Gregory whom I described in the Acknowledgements
of my book as “a retired United Church of Christ minister whom Francis chose to
help him ‘with the transition’ and who has given me trusted guidance and
support since Francis’ death.” (By the way, Bill wonders if it’s the
camera that made me look more frail than he said I am and look in person.
;o)
Interestingly, the radio interview, aired in
February, 2011, was also 8 minutes long: http://soundcloud.com/carolynbarnwell/sing-and-i-will-hear-you
Last
month I went to Woodstock, NB Canada for our annual McGillicuddy family
gathering on “Shrine Sunday” at Skiff Lake, NB. It’s Francis’ great great
grandfather Daniel, emigrated from Ireland, who donated part of the family’s
property to the church for this Shrine to St. Francis of Assisi (Francis’
patron saint) to be built 89 years ago. This annual pilgrimage to the
Shrine has taken place ever since. You can see a photo of it here: http://www.ofsnational.ca/EasternCanada/skifflake.html
Since
the following poem which came from that weekend experience doesn’t include
everything, I want to mention my joy in being reunited with Francis’ family,
nieces and nephews and in-laws, and especially Jo, my sister-in-law, newly
widowed.
I
was also delighted by the rare appearance there of Paul McGillicuddy, the 98
(or is it 99?) year old relative who gave Francis his first job in the US
before he went to college. I told Paul, sitting next to me the whole time
on the grassy incline during the liturgy – that he had made my day.
Thanks to cousins Barbara and Frank Bolton who brought him.
But
here’s the poem (probably revised sufficiently for now) that came from that
weekend experience:
Family
Reunion
August
11, 2012
As I round the bend at
at the Woodstock Exit,
arriving alone
for our family reunion
(it’s the town where my in-laws
went to school)
I’m flooded with my
late !
husband’s feelings -
never before like this –
his own feelings in me.
Summer after summer
we came to this together.
But for many springs too,
he came alone.
He did it, he said,
“to commune
with the ancestors.”
He’s one of them now.
They were six siblings
when I met him.
Only three
remain,
none of them him . . . and
their spouses are gone –
all but one
other,
and I.
The five of us
gather
(it's my hotel room)
plus a nephew and a niece.
When the eldest
tells stories,
his face animates the past.
I see him nudge his sister:
“You and I, Josephine,” he says,
“are the only ones left
who remember these things.”
My
in-laws,
being
kin of Francis,
grace
me with
their
smiles and manners -
a
touch of him.
By
now Sing to Me and I Will Hear You – The Memoir: A Love Story is
coming along so well I told my editor (another Irishman - Mike O’Connor) that
words and ideas are falling like rain, not only in the chapter 4 I’m
working on now, but for future chapters. And yesterday, even a possible
closing sentence for the whole of this book # 2 presented itself.
The
writing is giving me such joy I can feel Francis’ pleasure. In
fact, after writing about him at Camp Pesquasawasis, this poem came:
Your
Pleasure
August 18, 2012
If you read
what
I wrote
about
you,
today
-
you
would be pleased.
But
the feeling’s
so
strong, that you
are . . .
pleased,
how can I say that
“you would . . .”?
Book
# 3 is therefore already on its way since the thirty poems that have come and
will come, God willing/inshallah, after the publication of the first
one, will comprise half of it. The name of that third book, I like to
repeat, is: Sing to Me and I Will Hear You – The Uncollected Poems and
Journals.
Loving
Gratitude,
and
Prayer for justice and peace for all people
and
for our planet,
Elaine
PS:
I love to hear from outside the glass door near which I’m sitting, my six
chickens’ contented clucks.
