Comments on: He Departs as Air: Bill Holm, 1943-2009

By: Aaron Cheadle

Aaron Cheadle — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:49:00 +0000

I first met Bill, my neighbor across the street, when my family was out Christmas caroling. He unexpectedly invited us inside and we found ourselves around his piano singing a few songs together. I was teaching in Marshall and had no idea who he was.

Years later, when I left the first time with the Army Reserve for Operation Iraqi Freedom, my neighbors on one side had a sign on the lawn in favor of the war. and my neighbor across the street (Bill) had a sign opposing the war. I could identify with both and took them as a sign of support. When I returned, Bill and I talked about the war around his kitchen table. We saw eye-to-eye on so much of it that it wasn’t the interesting discussion you might imagine.

I made a resolution when I was gone on that first deployment to connect more deeply with my community. I transferred from the Army Reserve to the MN National Guard and applied for a job at Minneota HS. I also started to ask more questions about the history of the town and heard that Bill had written a bit about Minneota. 10 years after moving to Minneota, I read my first Bill Holm essay. I couldn’t believe what I had been missing out on and resolved that no Minneota student should graduate without knowing our home-town literary hero. I created a unit in my American Literature class where the students read a few of Bill’s essays and wrote their own Bill-Holm-type essay and invited Bill to come speak to the students. It was a very successful end-of-the-year unit and something I looked forward to every year. I think Bill really appreciated it as well.

I was in Iraq when I heard he had died. I realized how much he had come to mean to me and months later I still mourn the loss of our conversations and the chance for Minneota students to meet him.

By: theob

theob — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:58:14 +0000

the dead are gone, and that is sad. I may be young, but I’ve seen more than I care to tell, I find that it’s best not to dwell on death, think of if that person would want you to dwell on it, or if they’d want you to get on with life. Bill was a good man, writer, and poet, he also was a person like, well, all of us, and he watches from somewhere and smiles.

godspeed bill

By: Lois Anderson

Lois Anderson — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:53:26 +0000

Thank you to Bill. You shared your words and your self with us.
I met him in person at the RamseyCounty Library in St.Paul, Mn. He read from “Playing the Black Piano,” then signed any
and all of his books which we presented to him.

My grandparents were Norwegian immigrants, and I felt connected to the way Bill loved immigrants. The U.S. considered many of them failures. He honored them in
“Music of Failure.” I love that book, and I loved Bill. It is a loss
for all of us who read and understood his words.
I cherish and will re-read his beautiful literature.

By: Mrs. Walder

Mrs. Walder — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:48:56 +0000

Bill Holm was a professor of mine at Southwest State and really hooked me to poetry and really creative writing in general. I use many of his works from time to time in my classes.

I also wanted to comment that your blog is wonderful. Take care and keep Bill’s unique attitude, memory and joy of writing alive!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:54:08 +0000

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Sarah

http://www.craigslistdecoded.info

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Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:50:37 +0000

[...] Bill Holm’s hometown–and current residence–but his muse, his tether, his theme, his kingdom. Read More Read [...]

By: Minnesota author Bill Holm dies at 65 | 好了吗？我都10个了..I‘v been built ten blog.

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:02:49 +0000

[...] Bill Holm’s hometown–and current residence–but his muse, his tether, his theme, his kingdom. Read More|||Associated Press – February 26, 2009 2:14 PM ET MARSHALL, Minn. (AP) – Southwest Minnesota author [...]

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By: 我是一只放养的木哇…. » Blog Archive » Minnesota author Bill Holm dies at 65

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:19:56 +0000

By: Scott Schwister

Scott Schwister — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:47:29 +0000

A lovely remembrance. Thanks. You captured much of what I was feeling after hearing the news earlier today. I briefly met Bill around the same time you did—twenty years ago already?—when he did a reading in the tiny English department lounge at UM Morris. The room was fairly dripping with heartiness and cheer, and I left that night with a model for living a gentle, humanist life full of good talk, great books, and the music of language, and a new appreciation for prairie life. Not that I’ve picked up any Icelandic along the way, and my piano lessons ended at 4th grade, but still. I wound my way through Box Elder Bug Variations, Coming Home Crazy, The Dead Get By With Everything, Eccentric Islands, Black Piano—each new book like a postcard from an old friend.

On a stormy day like today when everyone’s attention is literally whited-out and elsewhere, thanks for making quiet note of this news and life.