<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Litany </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 22px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><i>For all that is done and said.</i></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><i>We know their dream; enough</i></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><i>To know they are dreamed and are dead.</i></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span> from Yeats’ “Easter, 1916”</i></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 22px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Enough to know.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">They are dreamed.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">And are dead.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">The litany in my head</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Utters their names</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">One by one. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Dead. Not dead.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Dreamed.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">The beginning. Kneel down</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">On the cold stone floor.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">The stone of the heart recalls first</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Her name. Mary. The Grandmother, </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">The grandmother from Wales</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Whose voice always took me to the lilt </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Of Dylan Thomas.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Then the children: Marietta Walker, </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">First child of the young bride. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Donald, after her husband,</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Who worked in the mine.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Carrie. Bill. Sam. Norval. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">The family grew, boys</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Following their father </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Into the coal-dark days.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">The child Kenneth, </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">The only one never to reach adulthood, </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Adored by my mother, Maggie May.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">(Maggie May, Margeret, Midge—</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Alll names worn by my mother.)</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 22px; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">And the youngest: Betty (Mary Elizabeth). </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Elbert. Lucy Florence. Robert. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Twelve children and never an angry word</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">From the parents from Wales, from Scotland.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">But the names go on. Chidren </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Of their children. Cousins. Brothers.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">My knees, on that ancient stone</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Known to my memory, have no feeling. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Only telling. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">The names </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Come faster. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">They are hard to say. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">And now, in silence, </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">The stone. My heart. My love.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Say it. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Enough to know.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">Dreamed.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; ">And dead.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>- Fran Claggett </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; "><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; "></div></body></html>