Our wonderful friend Mary Kellogg – published poet and a beloved witness to my life with Maria – came by to say hello today. She brought us the gift of some new poems and did some bonding with Red. We loved the poems – what a treat to hear them – and I asked Mary if she was up for her third book of poetry. She looked at me with her quizzical eye and smiled. “Maybe so. You think it’s time?” I do. Mary’s first two volumes – My Place On Earth and Whistling Woman – bold sold through several printings. Mary started writing poetry when she was eleven, and she just had her 83rd birthday. She lives on her 30 acre farm and takes care of mostly by herself. She is aware of aging but does not surrender to it or take it too seriously.

Mary and I have been friends ever since she visited me with a group of girlfriends at Bedlam Farm and showed me some of her poems. I was the first person other than herself to ever see them and Maria and I went to work getting them published, one of the happiest experiences of my life.

She plans to die in her house, on her farm, she said. It will happen. I hope Mary writes some more poems, I would be very proud to publish volume three of this remarkable person’s work. Talk about strong women.