Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

October 7, 2023

an email sits unsent in my draft folder
suggesting that she and I collaborate
on another long-distance poetry reading...
then the news
Hamas
war
gunfire
Nir Oz
hostages
...

weeks of pretending to cling to hope
until the word arrives:
she's gone
both she and her beloved
gone
and with her departure
Studio 8
(and its distant cousin, ArcanumCafe)
are not just diminished
but gutted
the magnitude of her presence
not fully evident
until it was removed...
and it's now up to us
to continue watering these sites
with the love that she did
so instinctively

please let me know if you think I should gather the poems judih wrote to create a separate tribute forum with them…

I also missed doing so for Wireman

I don't know if she posted much of her own work outside the Haiku forum - but she commented everywhere, like a cheerleader, leaving words of encouragement for everyone else. I just thought "In Memoriam" was incomplete without some mention of her name.

Your poem is wonderful! Thank you for posting it!

After 20 years (since we opened in 2004), Judih posted 524 originating posts, I just did a search. Many in the haiku forum, many in the GO forum, of course. I’m not sure how many in the poetry forum. Some were announcements so I wouldn’t move those. I’m wondering whether I should make a separate forum like I did for 3 others.

I will have to make a decision.

I miss her every day, Doreen. Like all of you do. Every fucking day.

Make her a forum. Let visitors and members see her amazing work gathered. Please do

Yes, Ray! I miss her so much! Every single day!

Thanks for your feedback. Much appreciated! I will work on creating the forum of her posts as a tribute. I don’t remember how to do it, but I’ll figure it out. Thank you for giving me some time.

can't wait, great idea Doreen

I really haven't been able
to write about judih
I've tried
and my words rang flat
but I think of her all the time
that fateful walk
and never getting to say goodbye
to her dear family
and the family's anguish
I just don't know what to say

there's not much left to be said
a beautiful soul taken away too soon
too cruelly, too needlessly
a random act
of human depravity and madness
it's a sad commentary
that hatred won't die
until we all do