Continuity Meeting
by Bill Tucker
September, 2007

The first meeting began with fragile hopes
And resolutions best made early and often:
To be better writers, teachers, friends and to remember
Therealalmassey.

We remembered writing in a sacred hour
Reading tenderly each other’s words
Teaching strangers who became our friends
Like therealalmassey.

In June Al begged his doctor
To study in our company.
To write and teach and be our friend.
To make September resolutions.

With the dark-framed lenses, the frizzy hair,
The unruly beard like a hip high priest,
Al thought nothing sacred but his writing, his music,
And kids writing of their families.

He arrived late, often stood in the corner,
Held his pain in the knob of a cane,
Never left without a question that kept us musing
Or a musing that left us questioning.

In disbelief we clutched for continuity
Without therealalmassey.
We hardly knew his passion, his pondering, his pain.
But we remember Al: writer, teacher, friend.