They had Simple Names,
Katie, Maggie. Their Lives Light
The Generations
Maggie Kaufman Shetler 1876-1932
Katie Cook 1935-2023
They had Simple Names,
Katie, Maggie. Their Lives Light
The Generations
Maggie Kaufman Shetler 1876-1932
Katie Cook 1935-2023
We turn to Glory
And Away from Blood Until
We are Overwhelmed
Taken by the Chaos
Of Forgotten Memory
And We Cannot Breathe
As That Memory
Weaves our Shared Tapestry More
True than Any Fact
Full of Glory and
Our Bloody Hands, Survived By
Our Forgiving Hearts
Will We Never Learn
To Answer With Something More,
Different, Beautiful?
Trade Violence For Calm,
Hear Hatred With Love, Guns with
More than Blood and Breath
A New Kind of World,
Not One Gone All Blind In a
Furious Eye for Eye
Salvation Is Ours,
Found Only With Gentle Hands
Open Hearts, and Time
Loss on Every Shelf
Sorrow in Every Drawer
Pain Beneath the Bed
We Could Not Quite Breathe
Wondering if That Moment
Might Not Ever End
But Time Does Still Pass
And Grief Turned Towards Us With
All Its Open Heart
And We Also Found
Among the Sorrow and Loss
A Shining Honor
The Consolations
Of Shared Memories, the Breath
Of Persistent Love
So It Turns Out That
This Life is not Perfect and
Grief is not a Guest
But Our Souls do Rise
To Every Occasion and
Our Hearts Will Reach Out
And We Will Carry
Honor, Memory, and Love
As We Find Our Way
We Will Cross Those Fields
Step by Step Packing Water,
Food, and History
After all is seen
Wilderness Remains Beyond
The Grasp of Visions