Karen Audioun Klingman

Our dear friend poet on site Karen Audioun Klingman( Karen Audioun Klingman) has left the world,  the last day of 2012. As the year ended here, we felt close to Karen... as we gathered for New Year's eve.  Karen had given me a beautiful glass "flowery hat" several months ago, as a gift from one of her trips, as a thank you, representing our friendship...
it sparkled in our room last night, I had washed and dried it that morning so it was especially shining. Our friends said how beautiful it was, and I told the story of what Karen was going through, not knowing yet your
sad news, and we all were thinking of her together.

Karen has been our sweet poet friend for years and her sparkling presence,
comments, happy humor and readings of her beautiful bright poetry at our
gatherings. The sparkling flowery hat, which she said reminded her of the
ones I wear, is for me a reminder of how fragile precious life is. I know
she saw it that way too. She carried life lightly and with passion, and we
aspire to do this and carry on in that way of beauty too.

  We held a reading recently...of Karen's poetry which included this
beautiful, mysterious tanka, which was selected and published in Take Five,
Best Contemporary Tanka, 2012:

between
warmth of lit candles
an uninvited guest
whispers to the host
is no one else coming

The poem was written inspired by a painting by our dear friend Hungarian
artist Susan Dobay, and was part of a sequence published in our Poets on
Site book "On Awakening" 2012.  Also her flowery hat in
our living room, where we met so often and that same hat full of flowers. A
few weeks after she gave it to me I realized it was meant to be used as a
vase or bowl as well as be a "flowery hat"! So perfect as an illustration of
what we can do with life, wearing and collecting blooms as we go.

CLOCKS

by Karen Audiun Klingman

Wedded to our clocks, indeed we are!
But time measured by appointments and schedules
Seems to squelch our souls
Like clowns cloistered in familiar pews
Tick tock, tick tock, warm and fuzzy
Secure in our cocoon of knowing what comes next
Check my watch, oops it’s late
The cake is in the oven, the timer set
Your meeting is at 8.
Billy, your piano lesson starts at 4.
Excuse me, do you have the time?
Oh my gosh, I’ve got to rush.
Here comes the bus.
Do away with clocks, then chaos reigns.
But what a lovely world if
We could wander some serendipitous line
Tranquil and serene in our unordered plan
Instead of Father Time’s
Patterned and precise design.