A Villanelle for Kim
        in memoriam Kim Bridgford, 1959-2020

If there was a poetry goddess, you were it:
teacher, writer, scholar, editor—
When things were tough, you didn't quit;

you stood your ground, did the opposite
of what the other side expected. Sure,
there's a poetry goddess, and you were it.

You rose above it the fray: the bullshit,
faculty politics. How unfair then: cancer.
When things got tough, you didn't quit.

You showed us how to live, with grace and wit.
Keep going when it's hard, rise up, endure.
If there's a poetry goddess, you were it.

But now you're gone, I'm reading your obit.
This wasn't something medicine could cure.
Though things were rough, you didn't quit.

And so, our memories: sunlit.
No darkness. Salt air and lilacs, copper
beech leaves shining. Poetry goddess, you are it.
Things were tough. You never quit.

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Copyright © 2021 Barbara Crooker All rights reserved
from Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission