{"id":10528,"date":"2021-07-23T20:03:34","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T20:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=10528"},"modified":"2021-07-23T20:10:30","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T20:10:30","slug":"rest-in-peace-my-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2021\/07\/rest-in-peace-my-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"Rest in peace, my friend"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Drops in a web \u00a9 Ellen Wade Beals, 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019m thinking of Pat Rahmann<\/strong>. Her death notice was in the Sun-Times<\/em><\/strong><\/a> yesterday. I had not seen Pat for a couple of years. After she left Glencoe, she moved several times and I lost track of her. The last time we were together Lois Hauselman<\/strong> picked her up and a couple of us joined them and Rochelle Distelheim<\/strong><\/a> at the Lucky Platter<\/strong><\/a>. Lois is gone and so is Rochelle and now Pat is too. She was an integral and essential member of The Writers <\/strong><\/a>and someone I looked up to and admired.<\/p>\n

As a co-owner of Books on Vernon<\/strong>, she hosted The Writers<\/strong> on Wednesday mornings for some years. We met in the back of the shop where\u00a0 Writers Theatre<\/strong><\/a> also started. Pat played an instrumental role in launching that theater. Pat was witty and charming; I loved to hear her talk\u2014so exact, so precise. She wrote plays as well as fiction and poetry. One piece of writerly advice I remember her saying is how in the theater, tension moves the action on the stage and the same is true for fiction.<\/p>\n

Her poem \u201cLast trip together\u201d<\/strong> appears in Solace in So Many Words<\/em><\/strong>. When I put out the call for submissions Pat was the first writer to send me something. And years earlier when I needed a letter of recommendation to apply for an artist\u2019s residency, Pat wrote that too. She was generous and gracious. She made you feel important.<\/p>\n

Her novels are available on Amazon<\/a>. You can read more of her work on her website<\/strong><\/a>. She was talented in so many ways. I\u2019m grateful I got to know Pat Rahmann<\/strong>–thank you.<\/p>\n

Peace, love, and solace<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last Trip Together<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the raw end of winter
\nthey could no longer wait through Spring
\nto take their melancholy daughter
\nto some lush summered place
\nwhere there was nothing to do
\nbut float through sun-soaked days
\nor pick fruit in a grove,
\nunlike their own crisp orchard.
\nIt was dense, so sweet and hot
\none could hardly breathe.
\nThe trees\u2014formidable as pregnant Amazons–
\nhung thick leaves clear to the ground,
\nhid utterly the heavy fruit.<\/p>\n

They hesitated,
\nthen sent their only child up
\ninto the dark interior.
\nHer slim legs (the last part to disappear) thrashed,
\nfound footing, flushed a swallow-tailed butterfly
\ninto bright light.
\nIt lurched through liquid air,
\nsimply drunk on the stuff,
\nresettled higher up.<\/p>\n

They caught the swollen fruit tossed out one at a time
\nsticky, soiling their hands with black like newsprint
\nfrom smudge pots set to protect the trees
\nthrough their own hard winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnough,\u201d they finally called and watched
\nher emerge, an idealized version of a chimney sweep.
\nGrinning. Her exhausted face streaked.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Pat Rahmann<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Pat Rahmann at the launch of Solace in So Many Words at Women and Children First<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Pat Rahmann at reading of Solace in So Many Words at Barbara\u2019s Books.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m thinking of Pat Rahmann. Her death notice was in the Sun-Times yesterday. I had not seen Pat for a couple of years. After she left Glencoe, she moved several times and I lost track of her. The last time we were together Lois Hauselman picked her up and a couple of us joined them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[402,60,365,127,12,3682,232,13,265,7,368,3683,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-10528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-last-trip-together","8":"tag-appreciation","9":"tag-books-on-vernon","10":"tag-contributors-2","11":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","12":"tag-mentor","13":"tag-pat-rahmann","14":"tag-poetry","15":"tag-rochelle-distelheim","16":"tag-solace","17":"tag-the-writers","18":"tag-the-writers-theatre","19":"tag-weighed-words","20":"entry","21":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10528"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10545,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10528\/revisions\/10545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}