A Windham resident who believes that written words can soothe the emotional pain associated with grief has composed a new poem expressing his sadness over the loss of his longtime friend, former Windham legislator Bill Diamond.
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| The late Bill Diamond of Windham is the subject of a new poem written by his friend Bob Clark. The two men met while attending Gorham State Teachers College in the 1960s. FILE PHOTO |
“Bill and I had been friends for nearly 60 years,” Clark said. “Bill was involved in campus politics and inspired me to do the same.”
While Clark dabbled at writing poetry in college, he took classes devoted to looking at the meaning, motives and expression of poetry and it validated for him that creative use of the written word was legitimate in the modern world.
After his college days, Clark joined the Peace Corps and says he found that in the Spanish-speaking places that he traveled to that he noticed the tone and sound of words that people responded to and their connection to the written word.
Returning to the United States when his time in the Peace Corps was completed, Clark became a Spanish teacher at Gorham High School and as his retirement neared around 2000, his interest in poetry increased.
He said that writing poetry allows him to observe, perceive, and communicate something of lasting worth.
“The attempt becomes one of organizing and polishing an idea that might otherwise lay dormant as single words scattered throughout pages of a dictionary,” Clark described his writing experience in a previous newspaper interview.
He said he begins each poem that he writes with the natural state and brings a connection to the human experience.
“I lay the landscape, then make a human connection so you’re really there with me for a touch of humanity,” he said. “It underlines the human character and makes a connection to the natural world. To write is to feel freedom and it’s a freedom to use words as images and images as expressions of comfort and joy as well as concern or unease.”
Clark’s new poem is not the first time he used poetry to express his feelings about loss and grief. Following the mass shooting in Lewiston in 2023, he composed a poem and presented it before the Lewiston City Council to show the concern of individuals statewide about the tragedy.
When Diamond, who represented Windham as a State Senator and a State Representative and he also created the “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes Foundation” to address problems associated with child homicide in Maine and children under state-supervised foster care, died on Aug. 31, Clark says that he was devastated.
“His friendly wave on his way to North Windham was always savored,” Clark said. “Out his car window I remember his shout – ‘Way to go Bobby, keep up the good work!’ On his behalf I wanted to relate a few words in public and have fashioned them as a brief poem stanza.”
To honor his friend, Clark wrote a new poem called "The Angle Blade" upon learning of the death of Diamond.
“He was always thinking of and working tirelessly for the benefit of others, and he has, even in his passing, invented a way for us to do the same,” Clark said. “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes” has organized a lifetime of his concerns and as the Windham signboard says Bill, we miss you.”
The Angle Blade
Walking the angle blade
Steady, sure, ahead of steps
More work to be done. <
“The attempt becomes one of organizing and polishing an idea that might otherwise lay dormant as single words scattered throughout pages of a dictionary,” Clark described his writing experience in a previous newspaper interview.
He said he begins each poem that he writes with the natural state and brings a connection to the human experience.
“I lay the landscape, then make a human connection so you’re really there with me for a touch of humanity,” he said. “It underlines the human character and makes a connection to the natural world. To write is to feel freedom and it’s a freedom to use words as images and images as expressions of comfort and joy as well as concern or unease.”
Clark’s new poem is not the first time he used poetry to express his feelings about loss and grief. Following the mass shooting in Lewiston in 2023, he composed a poem and presented it before the Lewiston City Council to show the concern of individuals statewide about the tragedy.
When Diamond, who represented Windham as a State Senator and a State Representative and he also created the “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes Foundation” to address problems associated with child homicide in Maine and children under state-supervised foster care, died on Aug. 31, Clark says that he was devastated.
“His friendly wave on his way to North Windham was always savored,” Clark said. “Out his car window I remember his shout – ‘Way to go Bobby, keep up the good work!’ On his behalf I wanted to relate a few words in public and have fashioned them as a brief poem stanza.”
To honor his friend, Clark wrote a new poem called "The Angle Blade" upon learning of the death of Diamond.
“He was always thinking of and working tirelessly for the benefit of others, and he has, even in his passing, invented a way for us to do the same,” Clark said. “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes” has organized a lifetime of his concerns and as the Windham signboard says Bill, we miss you.”
The Angle Blade
Walking the angle blade
Steady, sure, ahead of steps
More work to be done. <
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