
Memorial Day Compendium (click here)

along Butler Street Lawrenceville
Memorial Day Compendium (click here)
Two posts reblogged honoring
Dorothy Holley Poet, Friend post from 2010 click for slideshow
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Dorothy Holley’s Iris from her garden are in the photo below replanted by fellow poet and friend Liane Norman, who is the author of I Dug Up the Iris
I Dug Up the Iris
in Dorothy’s garden
to plant in the soaked
soil of mine, memorial
to her each spring
when they’ll open
complicated ruffles
and flourishes, purple
or blue with speckled
throats. They’ll rise
out of rhizomes
sprawling at soil’s
surface like the joints
of my old hands
anchoring the tall
stalks and frilly petals.
This morning
in the brief breath
of cool I dug shallow
trenches for this legacy,
this pantry of pollens
the bees prospect,
insects with lives
beyond what the mere
gardener knows.
Liane Ellison Norman, a Madwoman in the Attic, has published two books of poetry, The Duration of Grief and Keep(www.smokeandmirrorspress.com). She has published poems in 5AM, Kestrel, North American Review, Grasslimb, Rune, Voices from the Attic anthologies and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Her poem “What There’d Been” won the Wisteria Prize in 2006 from Paper Journey Press.
reblogged On the occasion of the birthday of poet Dorothy Holley http://rutheh.com/tag/dorothy-holley-poet/
Remembering Paul Robert Van Sickle.
A loving husband, father of three, and a proud grandfather. A brother, a teacher, a gifted musician, gardener, and woodworker.
And our beloved cousin.
We’ve just returned home after celebrating Paul’s life during a Memorial Service at Trinity Episcopal Church in Lenox, Massachusetts last Saturday the 20th. Paul would have loved all the music- the singing, the playing of the organ. It was beautiful. Poignant.
The cousins drove in from Vermont, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. After the service we gathered together at his home to share stories and memories.
I felt moved as I entered Paul’s workshop, behind his home, and inhaled the scent of wood. He could repair things, too. See his tools all lined up? His grandfather’s toolbox on the bench. There’s a wooden toy box in my home that Paul crafted for my son, Mark.
Paul was a master musician, organist and vocalist. He had a beautiful singing voice. I remember his playing our family piano when he’d visit our home. J.S.Bach was a favorite composer.
Paul’s favorite cookies were my mom’s recipe for Sour Cream Cookies. His wife Susan baked them for the family gathering after the service. My mother baked them for a Paul in the sixties when he’d visit our home. That kitchen was in Morris Plains, New Jersey and he’d visit when he was on leave from the US Army -Ft. Dix, New Jersey.
It’s hard to sum up a life in a few words. Paul was a blog follower and told me one time I was a little heavy on the photos showing decay. You know those abandoned buildings and discarded furniture pieces, the garbage I post? 😂 We’re going to miss his laughter, his kindness, his generous heart- full of love for all of us.
Here’s a link to his obituary in the Berkshire Edge.
Hymn of Promise Author: Natalie Sleeth (1986). pianist Evan Alperone sung by Tim Silva
Eastern Redbud in bloom at sunset. Planted in my backyard by a friend, as a memorial to my parents.
It was their favorite tree. The blossoms cover the whole of the branches.
That’s a lot of th in the title today.
There’s much to be grateful for as a daily practice, not limited to Thanksgiving.
I am paying tribute and expressing gratitude for good parents. I found this photo today and remembered our Thanksgivings together. And apart. An inscription of gratitude for their friendship was on the back of the photo, written by friends Ethel and Coleman Ives who must have mailed them the photo. I believe it’s taken in New Haven, Connecticut.
Once, when I was missing my mother snd father so strongly, in the depths of grief, a counselor advised me to do for others what my parents did for me.
My parents set a good example of how to be loving and caring humans which I’ve tried to pass on to my own family. ❤️
These photos are from May 1987, taken in Kentucky. Sent by my good friend Joanne. We were so much younger then, we’re older than that now……
And a tribute to Phyllis George who passed May 14th.
Ruth – you and I reconnected as Army wives in Fort Knox, KY in 1986 after we both moved there from Germany, where we first met. You taught me the art of smocking and we spent a lot of time together stitching beautiful outfits for our little girls. Then we decided to make it a “cottage industry” and created our business Handsmocked in Kentucky. We took special orders and sold our work in the Kentucky Arts Council In Louisville … where we attracted the attention of Phyllis George (then wife of the Governor of Kentucky!) .
We had such fun and dreams with our little business, and then all of a sudden we were invited to Phyllis George’s home as a vendor for her Kentucky Derby celebration which featured Kentucky based artists! What an adventure ….33 years later I still have a lot of memories and a wardrobe of smocked dresses to hand down to some special little girl.My memory of Phyllis George was a gracious, giving woman who cared deeply about Kentucky artisans. (And she wrote us a check for a handsmocked dress for her daughter.)
Joanne was able to go into her boxes of photos which are all labeled and put her hands on these photos.
Artist HELÈNE AYLON February 4, 1931 – April 6, 2020
I asked Ms. Aylon if I might take her picture (with my iPhone these days) and she graciously agreed. Then she suggested we take one under the portrait of Julia Warhol, Andy’s mother. It was Mother’s Day.
Her exhibit The Word of God: Helène Aylon, The Liberation of G-d and The Unmentionable runs through June 26th
Author of Book (click for review) Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released: My Jewish Orthodox Girlhood, My Life as a Feminist Artist
2016 Article about Helene Aylon by Zachary Solomon The 85-Year-Old Avant-Garde Eco-Feminist Artist From Orthodox Brooklyn
Veterans Day. A day to honor and remember the men and women who have served our country.
If you’d like to include a veteran you know and love or (one of yourself) please send me the photo rutheh(at)gmail(dot)com and I will add it to the gallery.
This just in…..thank you Joanne Leonard Cohen reciting In Flanders Fields by John McCrae
Joseph Anthony Wozniak
born in Brooklyn 7/4/1910 joined Army in 1942.
Deb Beozzo’s father pictured above
Lt. Colonel Kathryn Ingram
Colonels Rick and Kristin Foerster
Colonel Rose Miller Afghanistan 2006
Don Anderson and Ed Kichi Sept 1966
Phu Bai, Viet Nam
Mike Kichi USMC Sent by blog follower and friend and frequent commenter Toni Kichi
From Anne Hamilton- UK-
Charles Albert Kydd ” I thought Ruth might like the attached photo of my great uncle, the brother of my English grandmother (the one you met). Charles Albert Kydd was born in 1896. He went missing and I’ve also attached a document relating to this which I found in amongst my gran’s papers. Unfortunately I don’t know anything else – not even what regiment he was attached to.”
Thankfully he did survive the war and lived into old age!
To include those currently serving in the military This photo sent by Sally Nauer of her son’s unit (Jonathan Nauer) neighbors at Ft. Knox in the seventies
Email a photo of a veteran with name and information about service and I will add it to the gallery. rutheh at gmail dot comMy Uncle Alan Ray Hendricks (USA)
Uncle Harold “Butch” Hendricks (USN) My grandfather Floyd and grandmother Mary Alta and my father Roy J Hendricks
Veterans Day. More than a day off from school. A day in November to honor all veterans- men and women in the military who have served. And the correct spelling “the attributive (no apostrophe) rather than the possessive case is the official spelling “ according to an article “Apostrophe Sparks Veterans Day Conundrum”. I had to look it up. WWII, on the left my father’s brother Alan Ray Hendricks who “observed his 28th bday by flying a bombing mission over Japanese-held Koror Island in a 7th AAF Liberator on which he is a gunner”.(old yellowed newspaper clipping) Received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Who do you know who has served? Scan and email a photo of a veteran you know , along with name and service and I will post a gallery of veterans.
Suzanne sent me her father-in-law and father and that sparked the idea. rutheh (at) gmail (dot) com
Remembering Jimmy Cvetic (click for article by Rich Lord)
Vietnam Vet, Police Detective, Boxing Coach and Poet. Poet is how I came to know him over the years, hearing him read at Hemingway’s Café in Oakland where he organized the Summer Poetry Reading Series for decades. He had an incredibly generous spirit. No one will be able to fill his shoes. He wrote the following poetry books:The Secret Society of Dog, Dog Unleashed, Dog is a Love from Hell, Dog Days published by Lascaux Editions.
September 8, 1949- February 15, 2019
Jimmy with Franco Harris on August 17, 2017 Little Italy Days in Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh PA. I photographed them after Franco played in a Bocce game on Cedarville Street.
Click here to read Jimmy Cvetic in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Saturday Poem : Another God Poem