Persephone Miel

I’m really very saddened to learn of the death of Persephone Miel two weeks ago.  There’s little more to say than that, really – it’s a genuine loss, both on a professional and a personal level.  I knew Persephone through friends, through her work, and through many lengthy conversations at conferences we both attended both in the US and elsewhere – conversations that ranged far and wide, and always left me feeling richer.  I found her funny and engaging, knowledgeable and professional, generous and open, and I – like many others – shall miss her.  My condolences to her family, friends and colleagues worldwide.

It happens I was recently reading a blog post about the Proserpine/Persephone myth, containing these lines by American poet and translator Roger Hunt Carroll, now brought back to mind by reading Doc Searls’ post on preserving Persephone’s work in cyberspace:

There can be no farewell:
I will come this way again in forms
created from other lives,
bound with lilac and softer flowers
whose breath will speak my advent and reprise.