elisem | Entries tagged with mike

If you have thoughts to share about the songs in John M. Ford's HOW MUCH FOR JUST THE PLANET? you might want to hop on over to Nemesis Draco and share them with someone who's trying to figure them out. There's a post here: https://nemesis-draco.dreamwidth.org/30351.html

If you haven't ever been over to Nemesis Draco, there are some posts there with excellent links and discussions of Mike's work.

I took yesterday off from filking, and will be taking today as well.

Things just hit me harder this hear, for Reasons.

Back soon. Much love.

The problem with grief is that when it knocks, you're always home.

If you are going through grief too, I send you love and an autumn Minneapolis sunbeam.

Neil has this on his journal, which Mike wrote in 2003:

THE FINAL CONNECTION

Why are there so many songs about hearses?

The way to the uttermost side,

Hearses go fast, and traffic parts for them,

But who's in a hurry to ride?

Wagons and roads are an eloquent metaphor,

Gentling and straightening the way,

Everyone takes that last exit to Brooklyn,

Home at the end of the day

Remember the start of Magnificent Seven?

Steve and Yul drove to Boot Hill,

Just a small fable of folks being equal,

And going to sleep where you will.

Tickets and transfers and waiting for answers

At something so common yet strange,

Someday you'll ride it, the last train to Clarksville,

All classes, all stations . . . all change.

Look out the window and wave to the strangers

What do they see in the glass?

Up ahead, can you see, we've stopped for Emily,

There will be more as we pass.

Savor the journey, however you're going,

It's been your whole life to get there,

Someday I'll travel, without reservations,

I hope I've two coins for my fare.

-- John M. Ford, 2003

It's a lovely thing.

Here is the Making Light post about Mike's death and life and work. There are some lovely links there.

It's a day for remembering things. When I'm tidying the house, there will always be a voice quoting something about the dust being an integral part of his filing system, Mrs Hudson.

Anyhow, go look at the links to his works if you want to know some of the reasons a bunch of us are remembering him. Be warned that his work is in a whole bunch of different areas, and there's a constant feeling of "Wait, he did THAT too?" as one bounces from novels to gaming to poetry to music to a bunch of other things.

In the list of alternate universes, there is one where Mike got to finish his Munchkin project, and saw it became an animated series, and got Margaret Cho to voice the character he wanted.

There's also one where he and I got to (would have gotten to? would get to, since it's still future but not this future?) do what he said we should do, sitting in our whatever-wheelchairs-will-be-called-when-we-were-80 holding hands and looking down at Earth.

OK, yeah, I may be rather weepy today. Please be kind. The links in Making Light include many to other people's remembrances of him.

He was quite a Mike. I'm glad we had him for as long as we did.

OK, time to get going on the day, here. It ain't gonna seize itself.

Do you have Mike memories, of his work or himself or both? Funny/sweet stories especially welcome.

Mike wrote "The Declaration" for us in 1998, and a couple of years earlier I wrote a poem for him. Every now and then lines from both of them float through my consciousness. Sometimes, though, I need to go back and let the words pass before my eyes one by one, in their cadences, taking the time it takes to reread something that he undoubtedly knew I would go back to, and something else where I was trying to tell him about time and eternity-in-mortal-time and all sorts of things that I could only say with those lines.

Tonight it was this:

One partner: I stand here with you because together we possess infinity in a finite space of time, and our combined reach surpasses the mortal.

Other partner: I stand here with you because we have seen in each other a shared task: and though the void may separate us, and matter must always fail, we shall never truly be apart, one from the other.

Together we take joint and equal command of the time still before us, to watch and to defend, to endure the cold and the fire, to stand until the last.
For against that power armies are as nothing, and Death itself comes begging and ashamed.

So please be aware that all the CN are in the tags, and here, have a link: https://elisem.dreamwidth.org/1306788.html

Yesterday, April 10, 2022, would have been Mike's 65th birthday.

He was such a Mike. I miss him a lot. Like Neil says, we were very lucky to have him.

Got any Mike stories or appreciations of his work?

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30

Elise Matthesen

Entries tagged with mike

How Much for Just the Planet? questions

filk returns soon but not yet

when it knocks

Mike's filk: The Final Connection

Remembering Mike

Sometimes I Reread Things To Visit With Him

Happy (belated by an hour and a half) Mike's birthday

Profile

April 2025

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Active Entries

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags