Sad news - Hortensia Anderson

The poetry world lost an amazingly gifted poet and lady yesterday. After decades of pain, Hortensia Anderson has transitioned to a better place. No, I will not say that she died. Her poems live on and I firmly believe that our souls do survive and move to another place or realm.

Hortensia is free of pain this morning. She has a new body. And we are far better people for having known her and her work.

I invite followers of this blog to read her response to Haiku - Three Questions.

And to her family and friends, I offer this poem I penned a few years ago, inspired by my father's transition. The content of the poems is true, which is why I believe Hortensia is alive today.

Transition

Daddy's not there,
that's just his body
lying on that hospital bed,
a vessel he vacated.
He's gone to be with
his mother, told me
that she called to him
at night when he drifted
between this world and sleep.
He told me that he
floats above his bed
like a feather down
when she calls but,
when he's awakened
by a nurse, he drops
back onto the bed.
"It's the best feeling in the world!",
he said of this floating...
Last night he answered his mother,
sifted right through those white sheets,
floated up through the ceiling,
left his fragile, spent, body
behind.

Magnapoets - Butterfly Away Anthology Spring 2011