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April 26, 2008

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Don Z. Block

I bought a copy of Helene Mullins' "The Mirrored Walls" because it came with her signature plus several of her typed and signed notes. In one of those notes to her eye doctor, a Dr. Harris, she writes "I often find in the poets one who speaks intimately to me when I need clarification of my thoughts. Among my notes I found a quotation from T. S. Eliot's East Cocker [sic] and it gavd [sic] me a poem, which I enclose for you."

Here is the poem:

Poem to T. S. Eliot

"Home is where we start from. As we grow older/
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated." --East Coker

You do not speak of fear. Did self-esteem
preclude the chilling fear of growing old?
Or did your late conversion mercifully
rebuke the skepticism of your youth?

The intervals of suffering for mankind
being decreed with every passing hour,
you, growing old yet hopeful, might be envied
your trust in a benign, known Superpower.

Craig Wask

I should have mentioned that Helene Mullins was a regular contributor to one of the most respected publications of the last 100+years. The New Yorker.

Craig Wask

Helene Mullins was married to my grandfathers best friend “Lenny Johnson”.
My grandfather and Lenny used to come to our home on visits. This was the early 1960’s. Unfortunately Helene while not a recluse would never socialize with other people. Whenever they visited Helene would quickly disappear into another room always writing until it was the time to leave.
Because of this habit I never had the chance to really know her. But her husband was another story. He was as outgoing as possible. A story teller with a great sense of humor. Burr Moler, my grandfather, and he were similar personalities. They even wrote and were published in some of the magazines of their younger years. Lenny was undoubtably my most favorite non related adult. My last memory of him was my wife and I joining him in Greenwich Village at a Chinese restaurant in the early in the 1970’s. It was predictably hilarious and I still enjoy that memory. I am 73 years old as I write this.

angelica

I have a copy of the last set of poems ( the mirrored walls)

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