April 22, 2008 – Last night’s poetry reading by Mary Kellogg was special on many levels.
Mary Kellogg is 78 years old, and way past the age when most people are heading for condos in Florida, she lives by herself on a farm not too farm from me, and is cranking out some stellar poetry and getting ready to promote her first book.
  Last night was important. A great crowd turned out to help Mary celebrate her new book,
“My Place On Earth,” and I couldn’t help but think about a meaningful life, and what it means. Mary’s husband Dick died a few years ago of Alzheimer’s, and Mary cared for him for nearly 10 years. As a Hospice volunteer working with a number of Alzheimer’s patients, I have come to more fully understand that sort of love and commitment – Dick spent just about every night of those 10 years at home under Mary’s care.
  She loves living by herself, writing poems, hiking in her woods, tending her gardens and grounds, racing around madly volunteering for any number of causes, including spearheading efforts to built a small Hospice facility in Granville, N.Y.
  I have never heard Mary complain or say a critical word about anyone, and her writing seems to get stronger by the poem. Her poetry is beautiful and heartfelt, as the many people at the Berlin Library found out last night. I was watching their faces as she read her simple poems of life, loss and love. It was lovely. I loved seeing Izzy and Lenore wander through the crowd, sparking love and affection throughout the room. A special night, and I was lucky to be there, and thanks to Maria Heinrich, the editor of Bedlam Farm Books, for all of her hard work on “My Place On Earth.” I told her afterwards, that we just might be onto something here.
  I have rarely met a person more comfortable within herself than Mary Kellogg. She lives a life of achievement, faith and friendship. And grace. When I wonder how to live gracefully, write powerfully,  and age brilliantly, I will always think of Mary and what she taught me.
  I also was humbled by the connection between this blog and so many people, a large number of whom went far out of their way to come help push this young poet along. I hardly know how to thank them, or what to say.
  Mary’s achievement seems a victory to me, not only for her, but for a meaningful life, well and courageously lived.