Fifty Year Professor – Rose Bachim-Alent - A Celebration Of Her Life Poem by Bill Grace

The paying of debts
is not always an onerous task
sometimes love’s circle takes
a lifetime to complete.


She taught us to love literature
much more than a stopping place
on the road to somewhere else -
the others are forgiven.

The first experience of noetic power
(if Victor Frankl’s insight is correctly interpreted by Robert Leslie)
she took us to Europe one class room hour
with glazed eyes untouched by drugs
and in French, German, Spanish
made real the place in English.


There were honors
a Cross from Germany’s President
from the French an induction; ‘ Ordre des Arts des Lettres’
perhaps there were others
newsletters are not always read.

Larger than life
she never wore the same outfit twice
in death
an only regret is a wish
to have said “thank you”
long before these lines.