Elane Hellmuth Day June 5 by Teresa Marie Tipton

Outside empty rooms of an old home on Bucklin A barn, a long wooden table, one leather shoe Inside a dream I am helping Darian find something not there A love strongly hidden Or the absence of presence We dont know which We are looking for something that used to be there Intractable, persistent, definitive A Fighter, a Lover, A Poet, An Artist Organizing Us We are looking for traces Still performing you A record in its jacket A dusty grammaphone Fabric paintings on the wall So many changes and all traces of them gone now Thain and Thane and Jerry A photo of you on a white horse Lady Godiva Against the War Gerome by your side Against Roadside Spray Against Microwave Emissions Against Development All That Harm That never stopped I am looking for the courage to tell her You arent there Like that now Wherever you are, we dont see you Looking down from the top of a tree Inside a birds nest The twig and the fluff of fine feathers down Softly unpredictable

Elane Hellmuth Day June 5 by Teresa M. Tipton

You are the eye inside Thanes tapestry Looking out at a world no longer familiar You are the silence around us Speaking Your name Knowing this Changes Us Enshrining your memory I eat squash Cook garbanzos, Heat up brown rice With a rag I wash the floor. I take my food into the garden and eat it Your Presence is in the trees, Its all right honey, you would have said Even when its not When conversation is heated Another reversal One hand holding on The other one cleaning I am always cleaning up it seems You dont recover from loss You told me All that appears is its own benevolence For a chance to forgive Now it is coming anyway A memory of you Wearing a long skirt and dress hat Indoor sneakers walking in that other space, What happened to your poems Large letters on lined paper Arriving Arriving Coldly, Oldly, Sadly Calling Calling A Siren Announcing and quietly showing what Suffering impulses Survive You The sun returns The wind briskens Along an old logging road Feet crunch gravel Gears of a bicycle turning a chain No one is speaking Except the wind passing through A consolable forest That bears your name Singing a song of unity Battling On the Front Line Old Joe Hill In loving memory of Elane Hellmuth, who passed on May 18, 2011 at the age of 91 Teresa Marie Tipton, 2011

Elane Hellmuth Day June 5 by Teresa M. Tipton