80s90sFanatic
03-15-2004, 10:55 AM
okay I don't know anyone has come across this yet, but I just read that Beth George died last year of cancer, here's the article. I thought I'd post it up in case anyone wants to read it.
Beth George, co-founder of PACC, dead at age 56
Beth George,56, founder of PACC, teacher and poet, died may 3rd 2003 of cancer. She founded PACC with her husband of 38 years, Tom Burkett, after the murder of their son, Tommy, in 1991.
Beth, born Maxine Beth George in Blossburg, Pennsylvania, had been a teacher of English in the Corning, New York, school district and the Fairfax County, Virginia school district. She taught at Northern Virginia Community College, Marymount University and George Mason University where she was employed at the time of her death.
Fifty of her poems were published in various journals such as Sou'wester, Kentucky Poetry Review, and Poet Lore.(Read samples)
After Tommy's murder, she replaced her interest in poetry with an unflagging and courageous effort to obtain justice for Tommy and to publish the truth about the investigation into his death.
Unspeakable
My only son, my summer child,
whose grey-green eyes saw dinosaurs
when long-necked combines crossed the field
My boy who heard the kitten’s cry
above the darkest blizzard’s roar
My boy who watched the beleaguered hawk
circle, dive and rise, the trailing crows
falling like pepper flakes in clouds,
and the hawk safe in the fire of the sun,
My boy who dug the kitten out of the snow,
who found the warm feather in the grass
My boy, my boy, my battered boy,
how many ears heard your cry?
What soulless eyes watched you die?
Written in 1999. Never published.
Here's the link of more poems by Beth that she had writen if anyone's interested in reading them.
http://www.thepacc.org/Beth%20George%20poems/Contents.htm (Beth George Poems)
also here's the picture that went with that article up above.
Beth George, co-founder of PACC, dead at age 56
Beth George,56, founder of PACC, teacher and poet, died may 3rd 2003 of cancer. She founded PACC with her husband of 38 years, Tom Burkett, after the murder of their son, Tommy, in 1991.
Beth, born Maxine Beth George in Blossburg, Pennsylvania, had been a teacher of English in the Corning, New York, school district and the Fairfax County, Virginia school district. She taught at Northern Virginia Community College, Marymount University and George Mason University where she was employed at the time of her death.
Fifty of her poems were published in various journals such as Sou'wester, Kentucky Poetry Review, and Poet Lore.(Read samples)
After Tommy's murder, she replaced her interest in poetry with an unflagging and courageous effort to obtain justice for Tommy and to publish the truth about the investigation into his death.
Unspeakable
My only son, my summer child,
whose grey-green eyes saw dinosaurs
when long-necked combines crossed the field
My boy who heard the kitten’s cry
above the darkest blizzard’s roar
My boy who watched the beleaguered hawk
circle, dive and rise, the trailing crows
falling like pepper flakes in clouds,
and the hawk safe in the fire of the sun,
My boy who dug the kitten out of the snow,
who found the warm feather in the grass
My boy, my boy, my battered boy,
how many ears heard your cry?
What soulless eyes watched you die?
Written in 1999. Never published.
Here's the link of more poems by Beth that she had writen if anyone's interested in reading them.
http://www.thepacc.org/Beth%20George%20poems/Contents.htm (Beth George Poems)
also here's the picture that went with that article up above.