Prayer for Cordelia

[§ê¢rꆧ]

Very sad news, Cordelia was a witty and insightful poster who always brought a lot to her posts. Thanks for letting us know.

When my nephew died last summer, I found his online communities and let them know, too. These days, a lot of people spend more time with online friends and acquaintances than flesh and blood people. Maybe we need cyber funerals. I found myself reading all of my nephew's posts. It was heart-wrenching, but also a way to enjoy a lil more of his light.

Welcome to RI.

[Luther Blissett]

This is such terrible news, Cordelia was such a wise presence in so many of our lives for so long. Thank you so much for being here and for letting us know.

[PufPuf93]

Thank you Brigit

RI was blessed to have Cordelia.

She was always intellectually bright, well-mannered, and a finder of beauty and good humor.

Best to you and those fortunate to have Cordelia in your lives.

[JackRiddler]

Brigit, if you're reading, how are you doing? How are family and others near to Cordelia?

Is there a memorial site or thread? Is there a charitable fund or cause in her name?

Thank you.

[Brigit]

Thank you so much for your heartfelt posts! I have read and reread your words with immense appreciation for your affection and respect for Cordelia. I embrace the words of the physicist and believe we are all always here despite these incomprehensible finalities. Yes, cyber funerals! Your posts are so comforting and make for a memorial that I just know Cordelia would love.

I'm in touch with Cordelia's two wonderful daughters who are of course devastated; they live on opposite ends of the continent. there will be a memorial gathering a year from now so that all members of this far flung family can be together.

Cordelia and I wrote letters to each other frequently from 1981 until 2000 when we discovered email. We forged a bond that became my spring-line to this world. Life is so terrible and so wonderful. Thank you for being here!

[Grizzly]

Bump.


Sure miss Cordelia's input here. I recently went through RI's 'films of a certain quality', and she was a major contributor, and it makes me sad to lose that. I also, miss slad, but not the incessant 'orange man bad' mania.

[Laodicean]

British sculptor Wilard Wigan


Microcosmos

When we first started looking through microscopes
a cold fear blew and it’s still blowing.
Life hitherto had been frantic enough
in all its shapes and dimensions.
Which is why it created small-scale creatures,
assorted tiny worms and flies,
but at least the naked human eye
could see them.

But then suddenly beneath the glass,
foreign to a fault
and so petite,
that what they occupy in space
can only charitably be called a spot.

The glass doesn’t even touch them,
they double and triple unobstructed,
with room to spare, willy-nilly.

To say they’re many isn’t saying much.
The stronger the microscope
the more exactly, avidly they’re multiplied.

They don’t even have decent innards.
They don’t know gender, childhood, age.
They may not even know they are—or aren’t.
Still they decide our life and death.

Some freeze in momentary stasis,
although we don’t know what their moment is.
Since they’re so minuscule themselves,
their duration may be
pulverized accordingly.

A windborne speck of dust is a meteor
from deepest space,
a fingerprint is a farflung labyrinth
where they may gather
for their mute parades,
their blind iliads and upanishads.

I’ve wanted to write about them for a long while,
but it’s a tricky subject,
always put off for later
and perhaps worthy of a better poet,
even more stunned by the world than I.
But time is short. I write.


Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska

[stickdog99]

Bravo.

[Laodicean]

Dedicated to Cordelia.

[JackRiddler]

Losses.

[liminalOyster]

Perhaps there should be a tasteful in memoriam section? Reading about Iam's life outside of this place was really meaningful to me.