Requiescat in Pace Scott Wannberg, 20 February 1953-20 August 2011

I met Scott early in my time in Los Angeles in the late 'eighties, often seeing him at poetry readings and occasionally sharing the bill, and was delighted when he found me on Facebook a while back. From that point on he became part of my daily consciousness with his messages, posts and poems. I will miss his easy affection, compassionate generosity, and irrepressible spirit.

Requiescat in Pace Colin Harvey, 1960-2011

I am saddened to learn of the death of my former student and science-fiction author Colin Harvey. My condolences go out to his family and friends, and I am most sorry I will not be able to make it back to England in time for his funeral next Friday, 27 August.

Judith Palmer resumes as Director of the Poetry Society

You can read The Poetry Society's press release here.

Cooking for One

Since I arrived at the family home on the first of August, I have spent hours each day going through my parents' papers, and it's excruciating to see this stuff of lives knowing the lives it accompanied are gone. I've read truly countless bills and financial statements, but I've also come across love letters, a draft notice, an impressive collection of 60s Democrat memorabilia, old photos of people I don't recognize, loose bits and bobs, and the letters I sent my parents over the years, especially in the days before email.

One of my sisters told me there was more cat food in the trunk of my mother's car, and within this hour I encountered another motley array, recent purchases including some books, catnip, Christmas paper plates and wrapping paper, cat food and a box of instant amaretto cappuccino sachets. I expect the latter was for me and my expected visit later this month, as she knew I loved amaretto and had bought me Amaretto di Saronno as a Christmas present on at least one occasion, and on several visits home I'd bought the makings for amaretto sours and made them for my parents and I.

More sad were some of the books. There were a couple novels, apparently picked up secondhand, as well as a few nonfiction titles: the first I saw were Cooking for One and Facing Loneliness. My mother has struggled on her own since my father died in March 2009, and these titles, and, found a few minutes later, Healing Grief, struck me hard with the pain of her sorrow. I dearly wish I could have done more to mitigate it.

Screams for my mother

Written on the flight from London to Chicago

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

COME BACK COME BACK COME BACK COME BACK

IT WAS A COLONOSCOPY--WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE CODED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PROCEDURE?

WHO WERE THE TWO DOCTORS WHO TURNED HER AWAY, SAYING IT WAS STOMACH FLU? GIVE ME THEIR NAMES

NO YOU CAN'T YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HERE ALL ALONE

WE WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE ANOTHER VISIT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE THREE WEEKS TOGETHER

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO LIVE FOREVER

Henry Etter and Bernadine Meeker, 1965

The year before they married

My mother's obituary

appears in today's Pantagraph.

20 Things My Mother Loved (or Liked)

1. John Denver, the person and the music. All of it. She saw him in concert and met him several times.

2. Maeve Binchy novels. The Irish settings help (she was half-Irish and grew up largely with her Irish grandparents).

3. Melon, all kinds

4. Cats. The house on Arlington Drive, where she lived the last 37 years of her life, always had cats, and for a while, a dog named Buffy.

5. Panera Cafe in Bloomington.

6. Shakespeare. When my visits coincided with the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, we'd attend one or two plays together.

7. Playing silly computer games, like Chuzzle

8. TV medical dramas: St. Elsewhere, ER, Grey's Anatomy....

9. Pizza with lots of vegetables, especially green pepper and black olives

10. Daisies

11. Cooking. Specialties included lasagna, beef stroganoff, and ham and bean soup.

12. Fish. She loved to eat all kinds of fish, every which way. I can remember dinners with her where she had catfish, tilapia, orange roughy, and salmon (not all at once!).

13. Sales. Garage sales.

14. The color blue

15. Her dark burgundy sofa with the recliners on either end

16. Strawberry daiquiris (not that she had them often)

17. Autumn foliage

18. Old James Bond movies

19. Getting her hair cut

20. Constant Comment tea

Requiescat in Pace Bernadine Marie Meeker Etter, 30 July 1945-29 July 2011

You were the best thing that ever happened to me.

A petition to reinstate Judith Palmer as Director of The Poetry Society

has been proposed by George Szirtes with initial signers Liz Lochhead, Carol Ann Duffy, Gillian Clarke, and Jo Shapcott, and can be found here.