James Arness, who played Marshall Dillon for 20 years on one of American TV's greatest, longest-running and most-beloved shows, Gunsmoke, has died at the age of 88. Arness, who was six-foot-six, had a tragic personal life in that his wife and daughter predeceased him due to drug overdoses. He will be much missed but is a rock-solid part of the cultural landscape of American popular culture.
A poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.

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