today, we mourn with Eli's son

I was shocked to see, in my blog feed, the horrible news that Elisson and his wife had just lost their beloved kitten Levon, barely ten months old. Elisson has also put up a touching valediction for his cat that would be worth your while to read.

I offer up Stephen R. Donaldson's poem on death and mourning:

Death reaps the beauty of the world—
bundles old crops to hasten new.
Be still, heart:
hold peace.
Growing is better than decay:
I hear the blade which severs life from life.
Be still, peace:
hold heart.
Death is passing on—
the making way of life and time for life.
Hate dying and killing, not death.
Be still, heart:
make no expostulation.
Hold peace and grief
and be still.

—Stephen R. Donaldson, 1977
Lord Foul's Bane, Chapter 17, "End in Fire"


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