Marilee was my greatest writing mentor and a dear friend.
She was an evangelist of the power literature wields to change the world.
There's nothing we can do to repay her wisdom and passion for the written word.
May her words live forever.
What motivates you
What drives you
What would you give up everything to obtain
A stone cries out
Beneath a valley, under a hill
Beneath a room without a view
Beneath a place marked ninety-nine and two
Many gather, a circle of inert shells waiting
To hear the words like wildfire that will split their fears
To hear amazing, absolutely perfect, and so beautiful
To hear I’ve got chills right now
But suddenly the stone cries no more
Silenced like the epics of old
Silenced too soon
Silenced on a sense of mystery
Yet the circle remains
Forged of stones clinging to the mountain
Forged with a bond unbreakable
Forged to stand upon the shoulders of giants
Zealous, refusing reticence, remembering
That a Great Man once said
That if every voice fell silent
That the very stones would cry out
Keen, strong, they cry out still.
--2011
