THE DEAD AMONGST US

“Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves - regret for the past and fear of the future.” - Fulton Oursler
 
The Magpie Tales creative meme has challenged participants this week with “Summer Night”, a work by American artist Robert Bloch (August 2, 1882 – March 23, 1961). He was a Modernist artist and the only American artist associated with Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider), a group of early 20th-century European modernists. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He first studied art at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. In 1901-03 he produced comic strips and cartoons for the St. Louis Star newspaper. Between 1905 and 1908 he worked as a caricaturist and illustrator for William Marion Reedy’s literary and political weekly The Mirror. From 1909 to 1921, Bloch lived and worked mainly in Germany. After the end of World War I, Bloch returned to the United States, teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago for a year, and then accepting a Departmental Head position at the University of Kansas until his retirement in 1947.
 
The Dead Amongst Us
 
The dead amongst us walk,
They see, they hear, they talk;
The shades of those that lived
Of those departed, grieved,
Are here and stand and wait.
 
Those loved, and hated ones,
Ancestors, friends and sons
The daughters, parents, foes
And everyone of those
That influence our fate.
 
Dead hopes, and wishes too,
Our dreams, and a desire or two,
All patient stand and bide their time
Until the ticking clock will chime
And all shall stir, revive.
 
Dead loves, and passions fierce,
All that our heart did pierce,
The dead amongst us walk
They see, they hear, they talk
And keep all our regrets alive.