a tribute to a great woman

 

Martha Malling

there was a clarity to the twinkle of her eye,

a wisdom, a solidity, that knew you true,

and would do whatever needed doing,

while still getting the cosmic humor of every day,

the joyous rightness that calls to us,

that called her to the love of her life,

that great Danish bear, Heinrich, the Viking,

that called from her three extraordinary children,

much about her life, her past,

I do not know,

I do know her presence:

to be with Martha was to be right,

we should honor her light by letting ours shine,

we should strive to be selves

whose eyes twinkle true like hers did.

by Henry H. Walker

January 17, ‘23