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Today is the last day of April, which is poetry month. Beagle Books http://www.beagle-books.com/, a book store in Park Rapids, MN, has been highligting poems throughout the month. Today they posted a poem by the late Minneota,MN author, Bill Holm, called “The Dead Get By With Everything.” Click on the link above to read the poem.
Today is the last day of April, which is poetry month. Beagle Books http://www.beagle-books.com/, a book store in Park Rapids, MN, has been highligting poems throughout the month. Today they posted a poem by the late Minneota,MN author, Bill Holm, called “The Dead Get By With Everything.” Click on the link above to read the poem.
I had the pleasure of meeting Bill Holm on a number of occasions, usually at a book signing for one of his books. Bill Holm was very proud of his Icelandic heritage, and he showed it off to great advantage. Everything about Bill was extra- large: his physical stature, his personality and his booming voice.
One time as he was signing, he noticed my last name on my name tag. “Is that Finnish?” he asked. I said yes. He looked squarely at me and challenged, “Do you speak the language?” I am Finnish by marriage, not by birth, but under that ferocious Icelandic gaze, a complete sentence of Finnish appeared in my brain and was proclaimed aloud by me. Bill was satisfied by my recitation, and he completed the signing of the book. I had never had to pass an examination to get a book signed before!
One time as he was signing, he noticed my last name on my name tag. “Is that Finnish?” he asked. I said yes. He looked squarely at me and challenged, “Do you speak the language?” I am Finnish by marriage, not by birth, but under that ferocious Icelandic gaze, a complete sentence of Finnish appeared in my brain and was proclaimed aloud by me. Bill was satisfied by my recitation, and he completed the signing of the book. I had never had to pass an examination to get a book signed before!
The translation of the Finnish adage that I recited for Bill is this: “Things come; things go. Nothing stays the same.” Except one thing: the dead still get by with everything!
BOOKNIP 