"Accolades For Valor" by Matthew Johnson (1993): "She goes through life, gliding, a benevolent seer/ Stopping constantly to aid those in need, those not even dear/ I, an individual, swept up in the storm/ Of a woman, who, in search of herself, defies the norm/ As I, an outcast, fighting myself, yet daring to believe/ That if I ask her aid and succor (and possibly love) she won’t leave/ Giving her heart, mind and soul to every known cause/ Causing me to look about my selfish malestrom, and in introspection give pause/ For all her words, she won’t write about me, does she fail to perceive/ What the object knows to be true and what make believe—/ Words rarely present, presence much more of one/ Is to wish for more as good as wishing for the sun?/ Energy is precious, as I know well to be true/ And I am curious to know, Lorraine, what I can ask of you/ Names are important, they make us who we are/ Much more important than people give credit, by far/ The masses may cry “Lori!” and let them do so!/ For the numbers who call that cannot understand/ They will never know the Lorraine inside, the one crying to live/ Will be forever frustrated by those whose minds are like a sieve/ There may be those who rob her of her world, let them scratch the skin/ They are as pinpricks to the steel within/ These accolades are not exaggeration, not pretentious/ I Just want you to know that there is at least one who is conscious/ That the world is a better place for the life of a woman named Lorraine."

Friday, June 24, 1994

Closer II












God has taken you
so far away from me,
yet given me the chance
to come close
before you're too far.

Stubborn
yes
Strict
yes
Father of four boys
successful men

The playful names;
self-slaps;
Crazy Eights games;
the walks;
trips to the track;
midnight ice cream trips
hanging out at the airport;
Slurpee mixes;
the stories;
The Catskills

Your oldest grandchild
first girl
First Bat Mitzvah
the pressure;
the tension


My pride
in my faith
is there.

My pride
in my grandfather
lives on
in my beating heart;

Even if
your's stops beating.

June 24, 1994

posted by Lorraine Courigan at 12:09 PM

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