Look Homeward, Angel!

I must apologize to my friend, Nancy Kelly, for what it's worth. I have posted about her story a bit before. Hers is complex, and there is still so much I do not understand, but I don't care. She is every man, woman and child that has ever struggled to live life; she is me. She is you, too. She is hope. She is life. And she will die. Dying, for her, has taken close to three years. God, damn you for giving her a life from HELL, for allowing her such abuse. She still to this very minute believes it to be her fault she's so sick. I won't believe in a God who allows that, so I don't. Thank you, God, you'll let her die so she can be free from this cruel joke that is humanity; you do not judge her for what she could not do. I am just one of many who loves her. We cannot save her body, but, hopefully, all of us together might just save her soul. Let me treat her as a living person.

This is not a prayer to the Almighty, but a prayer to myself. Let me treat her as a living person. Let me give, let me not take.

Let me ask ever so gently to all my friends: wish her well. In this, I ask you all, all of you: give. There is a paypal button on her xanga site, but even if you have nothing to give, please wish her well and read a bit of her story.

Lycidas

Look homeward, Angel now, and melt with ruth:
And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth.
Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more,	165
For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead,
Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor.
So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,
And yet anon repairs his drooping head,
And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore	170
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:
So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,
Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves,
Where, other groves and other streams along,
With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,	175
And hears the unexpressive nuptial song,
In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.
There entertain him all the Saints above,
In solemn troops, and sweet societies,
That sing, and singing in their glory move,	180
And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.
Now, Lycidas, the Shepherds weep no more;
Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore,
In thy large recompense, and shalt be good
To all that wander in that perilous flood.

http://www.xanga.com/Nancybratt