RIP or WAS

In the poem Confederate Graves in Little Rock, poet Richard Hugo wrote,

“The right words never find themselves cut into stone.”

From the same poem, he writes

“Maybe the best graves stay unmarked,”

I don't resonate to the acronym RIP. If one is a theist using RIP makes sense because it's an antiquated artifact of religious doctrine (e.g., may his soul rest in peace). R.I.P. comes from the Latin Requiescat In Pace.

Speaking or writing RIP has become our cultural norm. It is mindlessly deployed. RIP is spoken or written without considering its meaning. If one's atheist or agnostic (which I falsely assume many are), it makes little sense to use RIP.

What is a suitable acronym to deploy instead of RIP?  I propose WAS.

WAS

WAS means We Are Stardust. But it could also mean the past-tense was as in he was a person.

“Believe you and I sing tiny and wise
and could if we had to eat stone and go on.”

from Richard Hugo's poem Glen Uig in Making Certain It Goes On

REFERENCES

• At the Grave of Richard Hugo, Alice Bolin, Paris Review, May 14, 2012.

Degrees of Gray

I was fortunate to hear poet and teacher Richard Hugo read his poems on a Spring evening in 1980.

Richard Hugo discusses and reads Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg from Making Certain It Goes On: The Collected Poems of Richard Hugo.

Hugo was invited to read at Montana State by another favorite poet and teacher Greg Keeler.

“Assuming you can write clear English sentences, give up all worry about communication. If you want to communicate, use the telephone.”
― Richard Hugo, The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing

Richard Hugo’s poems, and his peerless book of lectures and essays on poetry and writing, Triggering Town, have been influential in my approach to coaxing, writing and refining a poem.

Say Your Life Broke Down. The poet, Richard Hugo. Painting by Greg Keeler

“In the world of imagination, all things belong.”
― Richard Hugo, The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing