Daniel Brick passed away

[Doctor Fab]

His poems refuse
to mourn his passing, [..]

Their refusal to mourn is
steadfast. [..]

'You see, he is not dead. He
lives in all of us. [..]

(from Daniel's 'After The Poet's Death')

_______________________

Dear All,

 

After Tom Billsborough, another dear friend passed away a few weeks ago: Daniel Brick.

Only today I got the news from Bharati Nayak: 3 hours ago she sent a note, asking me to read a comment by Daniel's son on PH. Through that comment posted by Ryan on March 21st, I got the news of Daniel's demise.

After Bharati's msg, I also received a note from Pamela Sinicrope, with the obituary that you can read below.

I had witten to Daniel on Feb. 21, as I heard that his health conditions were not good.

He answered a few days later (Feb. 24), and I was relieved by his answer, also because it contained some emojis (it was the first time that I saw emojis in an email from Daniel!).

Then, on March 3, he replied to my Feb. 27 email: there he made a reference to Ryan, saying that his son needed "immediate help".. so I understood that it was Ryan to have some kind of problems, not Daniel... But it seems that I was absolutely wrong.

That was the last time I heard from Daniel.. and only a few hours ago I read what Ryan wrote on March 21st.

I want to share with all of you the words Daniel wrote to me (see below).

I don't know what else to say... I feel really bad and can't find the words to add more.

F.

___________________________________

Daniel BRICK

Preceded in death by parents John and Bernadine Brick. Survived by loving twin sister Mary Gavin (Rick), son Ryan, nephew Rick Gavin (Diane), nieces Katie Halligan (Sean) and Kellie Gavin (Amanuel), seven grand nephews/nieces and several cousins. Dan suffered a stroke and passed away peacefully on March 16th. He graduated from St. Thomas Academy (1965) and the College of St. Thomas (1969). He was a teacher for over 30 years. For most of those years he taught in and developed curriculum for the Quest Program at St. Paul Central HS. Dan loved teaching and had a true passion for all things intellectual — poetry, art, music, history, religion and philosophy. Post retirement, Dan devoted himself to writing poetry, forming friendships with fellow poets around the world. Many of Dan's poems can be found on the website PoemHunter.com. Dan will be remembered as a kind and gentle soul. A Celebration of Life will be held later. Memorials preferred to Our Lady of Peace Hospice in St Paul.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/twincities/name/daniel-brick-obituary?pid=198111474

___________________________________

FROM POEMHUNTER:

Ryan Brick made a comment on a poem titled After The Poet's Death.

Ryan Brick 21 March 2021
Thank you all for the kind words. He had a passion for poetry and the spoken word. I'm glad that the future generations will get to know and enjoy his work! Love you dad
21 Mar, 14:35

___________________________________

These are the 2 last messages I got from Daniel - plus my last message to him (dated March 4th). I add it because when I wrote that msg, I didn't consider (or I didn't want to) that, in the tragedy, King Lear is going to die soon after... Although I can't know for sure, now I think Daniel was referring to that passage because he probably felt his own death was approaching.

---------- Forwarded messages --------

On  Thu, Mar 4, 2021 at 11:07 AM Doctor Fab wrote:

Well, King Lear and his daughter are prisoners, there:

"Come, let's away to prison; We two alone will sing like birds i 'the cage"

But nobody has to go to jail here, and no venom or knife for us 😁

Anyway, don't worry and take your time. I hope and trust that everything will turn out well with Ryan.

It's always a great pleasure to hear from you, dear Daniel.

Ciao

F.

On Wed, Mar 3, 2021 at 7:50 PM Daniel Brick wrote:

Fabrizio. I have more to tell you about the mystery of my disappearance, I'm not excusing myself, but rather explaining myself. I feel like a pint-sized King Lear saying to someone he has wronged, his daughter Cordelia: "When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down And ask of thee forgiveness."But I have an issue I have to resolve with my son. When I finish that - not to worry, Ryan is being very cooperative but he needs immediate help.

On Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 8:44 AM Daniel Brick wrote:
I've been watching Stanley Tucci visit Italian sites and restaurants. MMMM-I want the food!! Spread the tablecloth, bring on the steaming dishes, Oh, what heavenly food for us! Fallen Angels. //"I don't honestly know why this happened."  I'm confused by my actions or lack of them. But the longer I was out of touch the harder it was to reconnect. What I needed to do was make a decisive, immediatehitting-the-bullseye act, oh, like you did with this letter. Voila! But you don't carry any blame for this. It was my negligence, completely. // In my 30s I finally saw a psychologist about stress and depression which have plagued me. W. Churchill called depression THE BLACK DOG - not a sweet wufwuf but a long strident howl, almost wolf-like. This is not a scientific view but I've long thought of it. My twin sister is socially and economically well balanced but she suffers from many ailments over time, asthma, heart rhythms, migraines, and serious endemic back pain. I have none of those physical complaints like my twin, but I have emotional issues she doesn't. We are mirror images, we half the issues, only as a pair are we complete. This may not be at all true, I may be attaching meaning to things that are inert. OR  my observation may offer a positive path out of the Slough of Despond. It puts things which seem to be obstacles to action under a Big Light. Ah, there's my computer under the Big Light - I think I'll send a message to Fabrizio!! That's how you do it - fast, emphatic, done. 🤔🐒🤗🎵

[Doctor Fab]

Hi,

as I was asked about some of the introductions written for us by Daniel, I thought that the simplest answer to that request was to attach the book in which those introductions are collected. In attachment there is also a second book, which collects several poems written by Daniel (See the attached 2 files PDF).

I also thought of dedicating our next anthology (whose theme is democracy ***) to Daniel -- also adding, in memory of him, a number of short commemorations (each of them should be no longer than 200 words).
I therefore invite all those who wish to write something about him, to send me the texts by the end of April. Thank you.

Best

F.

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These are our 3 projects for this Spring and Summer:

— POETRY: "Democracy & Social Media" (Submission Deadline: April 30) ***
— members can submit up to 3 poems of any length.

— POETRY: "What Planet For Our Grandchildren?" (Submission Deadline: May 31)
— members can submit up to 3 poems of any length.

— SHORT STORIES: a collection of free-themed stories (Submission Deadline: June 30)
— members can submit up to 2 short tales [each story has to be longer than 1,000 words]