in handwriting spirits live forever. this book shows the reader how to listen to the voices of the dead, & send messages to the future… it puts you in their shoes… scribes & secretaries have poured so much power & intention into it, writing carefully & writing well.
b. 1852 & dies in 1895 when he goes down with his ship the elbe: there are about 300-400 souls aboard, and only 22 survive. goessel, kansas is later named after him. it is a small town, pop. less than a thousand, its cemetery full of german mennonites. my antecedents on my father’s side. to see one’s own name over and over on countless crumbling, mossy tombstones in the middle of the prairie… clocks stopped running there a long time ago
