<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: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times; "><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; ">You are cordially invited to join us for an Oral Tradition Poetry Salon</span></font></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-weight: bold; "><br></div></div></div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="6">No One But Us</font><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; "><div><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; "><br><div>Saturday, December 12</div><div>at 7:00 PM</div></div><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; "><br></div><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; ">at the home of Larry Robinson</div><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; ">460 Eleanor Ave.</div><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; ">Sebastopol</div><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; "><br></div><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; ">Approaching the longest and darkest night of the year, we will gather to share good fellowship, potables and edibles and poems and stories learned by heart.</div><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; "><br></div><div style="font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Seating is limited. To reserve a space please </span><u style="font-weight: normal; ">do not reply to his message</u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "> but </span>RSVP to <a href="mailto:Lrobpoet@sonic.net">Lrobpoet@sonic.net</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "> with the names of the people you wish to reserve seats for.</span></div><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; "><br></div><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; "><br></div></div></div></div></span></b></div></div></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">There Is No One But Us</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 22px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">There is no one but us.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">There is no one to send,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">nor a clean hand nor a pure heart</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">on the face of the earth,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">but only us,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">a generation comforting ourselves</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">with the notion that we have come at an awkward time,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">that our innocent fathers are all dead</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">- as if innocence had ever been -</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">and our children busy and troubled,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">and we ourselves unfit, not yet ready,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">having each of us chosen wrongly,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">made a false start, failed,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">yielded to impulse and the tangled comfort of pleasures,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">and grown exhausted, unable to seek the thread, weak, and involved.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">But there is no one but us.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">There never has been.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 22px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Annie Dillard</div></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font></div></body></html>