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MERI Center Blog

September 23, 2020
SMS Meeting Poems
Grief/Loss

Today, Mike Rabow read, "When Great Trees Fall" by Maya Angelou, in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing.  Since Friday, I've cycled between shock, grief, anxiety, and gratitude.  Losing Notorious RBG was devastating not only on a personal, human level, but also on a societal and political level.  We owe her a debt of gratitude for all her work on equality and road she has paved for us. We owe it to her and many others, including Maya Angelou, to continue the struggle for equality, against social injustice of any sort.  We can be. Be and be better. For they have existed. And today, it feels like we must be and better for so much is at stake. 

Thank you, RBG, for blazing the trail as long as you could and for being an outstanding role model.  May we pick up the torch you have passed us and hold it high.

When Great Trees Fall

Maya Angelou

When great trees fall,

rocks on distant hills shudder,

lions hunker down

in tall grasses,

and even elephants

lumber after safety.



When great trees fall

in forests,

small things recoil into silence,

their senses

eroded beyond fear.



When great souls die,

the air around us becomes

light, rare, sterile.

We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,

see with

a hurtful clarity.

Our memory, suddenly sharpened,

examines,

gnaws on kind words

unsaid,

promised walks

never taken.


Great souls die and

our reality, bound to

them, takes leave of us.

Our souls,

dependent upon their

nurture,

now shrink, wizened.

Our minds, formed...

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