George Sibley
All of us here who knew Betty are saddened to hear of her passing - and perhaps more sad because she wasn't able to get back to the valley again although her last note said she would like to. I recall with pleasure the afternoons I spent with Betty working on her collection of poetry, and also the more raucous meetings cogitating on lyrics for Sonofagunn songs. A poem for Betty, and all of us:
AFTER LIFE
After we wake up from living
We no longer need to make fire
For the heat we no longer need
In the bright crystal morning ahead.
Unseen but felt we mourn our loss
With those we've lost, till we wake up
Again to all possible, and leave wondering then,
On the back of a deer or a hummingbird.
And we go till, freed, we forget our selves
In places so lovely, so fine, we want to be
Everywhere there for a while, a night or a moon,
Or to maybe be somewhere a tree for a life.
And something of us is that tree, then, for a fractal
Leaving of time, and, if doubly blessed, something
Of those we loved will come to lie under us,
Or in our branches build nests, or just sing.