Dear Grandma Anne
I don’t know what I’m writing for
I’ve got nothing to say
That you haven’t heard
A million times before

Dear Grandma Anne You would have liked it here I believe
Next to the Boise River
Under the aspen trees

Where the ducks and the herons
Make their homes
And a few blocks away
Your private thoughts
Are written in stone

Dear Grandma Anne
Next year you would have been 75
I bet you’d still be spry
And spunky as ever

Dear Grandma Anne
Where on earth did you find your faith?
Where did you find
The strength and hope to say

That despite everything you’d been through
People still seemed basically good to you?

Dear Grandma Anne
I am so ridiculous in my doubt
What on earth is stopping me
From letting my spirit out?

Dear Grandma Anne
Please be patient with me
I have all the freedom in the world
And yet I don’t feel free

There is still some hidden room within me
Where I have forced something wild and beautiful to live silently

Dear Grandma Anne
You wrote that if you got out alive
You would do something significant
For all humankind

Dear Grandma Anne
I guess you got half of that wish
And now I here I sit at the riverside With this precious life to live

And your words enter in like a magic key
May they unlock all the hope, and strength, and love in me

May we all be free