Lifetime of learning has gone on her way
Departed the body, left here the cold clay
But legacies of thought and ten lifetimes of lore
Have passed into our keeping ere she left this shore.

And the packbeasts mewl soft in their stable
And the riderbeasts in their corral
Their mistress strides roads where hooves cannot follow
But our thoughts can, and evermore shall

Dwellers in mists and the dancers on tides
Merchants on highroad and some poets besides
Healers with thoughtforms and medical arts
Chroniclers of unseen: all now play smaller parts.

And the huntbirds cry harsh in the closed mews
And the canines howl out at the moons
Their mistress now ranges before them
And her legacy lives on in tunes

She gave us Society's naming and more
She gave of herself, and knew well the full score:
Laying no debts, she accepted them still,
And so gave our thought-words new will.

And the writers will pound on their keyboards
And the singers will fumble their strings
What's been long expected no more has rejected
Soft night has spread out her kind wings

Now, the filkers will sing soft of Heller's cold night
And the huxters sell tales of bold spaceships in flight
The trufen remember, and the fringefen will know,
Avalon's Lady can now watch the whole show.

Marion, "Mama", we'll miss you
Your kind words, and harsh, and brave smile
Rest now, you have given us lifetimes
We'll see you beyond the last mile.

* * * * *

Pax in requiescat, Mater Marion --
may the Powers grant
that you have taught us all enough.

written (& copyrighted 1999) by Mike C. Baker,
known also as Rev. Kihe Blackeagle (the Dreamsinger Bard)
and al-Sayyid Amr ibn Maid al-Bakri al-Amra
September, AD1999, being Anno Societatis XXXIV

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Wallpaper courtesy of Karen Nicholas & Nanette Vaughn