From Planet Proctor 2003 Volume 33
PHIL PROCTOR's online newsletter - www.planetproctor.com

KELLIE HAYWIRE

That was the late 36-year-old actress Kellie Waymire's soubriquet, and after attending her packed memorial at UCLA's Freud Playhouse and hearing all the heartfelt and moving eulogies and viewing the wonderful slide show and videos reviewing her life and brilliant career, it's a touching way to remember her wonderful and far too short life. But perhaps this poem by Mary Oliver will help, too. It's called "The Summer Day" and was printed in the program.

Who made the world?

Who made the swan and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean -

the one who has flung herself out of the grass.

The one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down -

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do not know how to pay attention,

how to fall down into the grass,

how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed,

how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I've been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

(You can honor Kellie's memory with a contribution to

"The Kellie Waymire Scholarship Fund
U C San Diego Foundation
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0904)