Thank you also to the volunteers who over the years have helped with administrative tasks, photography, fundraising, website development and publicity.

Heartfelt thanks to Dick Meyer and all the folks at Traditions Fair Trade and Cafe for providing a home for our public performances.

Smackback--- A Poetic Playback Kiss
                     
It always begins in silence
An energized moment suspended
All poised and all ready
The evening, open ended
Then sounds of self-introduction
Lastly calls the conductor
“Welcome all to another
Evening of Playback Theatre!”

But before the first sculpture
And after the final fluid has gone
Lies a list left to check,
A list that lengthens too long---
(But not to worry, please,
If you’re mood is quite terse--
We promise an eloquent
Yet succinct slip of verse)
One stanza is all that is needed,
Or perhaps two or three
To properly thank all those who gave
Unconditionally.

Enterprise for Equity for example
Showed us how to be the Boss,
Stonewall Youth brought us freedoms
We may otherwise have thought were lost.

Thank you our other collaborators
The Thunders and their heart’s desires;
The Neighborhood Free Medical Clinic
Who’s service story is to be admired.

Thanks, Lacey Friends of the Library
For sharing love of the A B C’s,
And African Birth Collective (ABC)
They’re about more than the birds and the bees. 

To document our images and
To treat us like star roses
We thank Yarrow, Dorothy, Paula and Mandy---
They photographed our pomp poses. 

To Keith, Dorothy, Aaron-
To Hilari, Jen, and Jane Jones-
Thank you, our Door Dears-
For greetin’ and ushin’ and countin’ up them bones. 

Related by blood or bonded through story
Our fine second Friday night friends--
Thank you for sharing and supporting us
As our public playback season now ends.

Yet starting it all and leaving it last
Stools, tables and chairs for the masses,
More power for amps
Water offstage and eight glasses--
Our needs are always nurtured
As they have been for over ten years
By our Nestors, our caretakers at Traditions,
And thank you for your tales of titterings and tears.

And soon after our last thank you’s—
Which as promised are come to a close,
Please share more moments together
As we in the back recompose
And hold in your heart what we hold in ours-
A ritualized reflection intended
That always begins in silence
Our energized moment suspended

Thank You!
~Aeryk Bjork