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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Hey Shawn,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Sorry for not commenting on this poem sooner. Firstly, congratulations on your retirement. That’s quite the milestone, and a big change in your life, so I hope you embrace it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I enjoyed your poem, although I don’t think the title ‘Career Suicide’ really fits. Perhaps ‘Career Freedom’ or ‘A New Path’?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>You have a few typos, but otherwise it reads well to me. Nice job.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Chris<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> Stylist <stylist-bounces@nfbnet.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Shawn Jacobson via Stylist<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, May 27, 2021 3:20 PM<br><b>To:</b> stylist@nfbnet.org<br><b>Cc:</b> Shawn Jacobson <sdj60259@aol.com><br><b>Subject:</b> [Stylist] New poem I wrote for my retirement<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'>I hope you like it.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'>Career Suicide<br></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>by Shawn Jacobson</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Until the gold fades<br>I will treasure future years<br>unchained from this life.</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The leader shows a slide upon the screen<br>a desert road, mountains in the distance.<br>“The road forward” reads the caption,<br>but it is not my road; I will part ways.<br>The road of office life, shall not be mine<br>I will take my leave, a different path.<br>My career will pass from my hands as I exit.</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The Emails offer training, ways to grow<br>in agency programs, leadership skills,<br>computer abilities useful for my work.<br>Yet I am disengaged, it matters not.<br>These things no longer ignite my fire<br>in terminal time they have no meaning,<br>no relevance to my now. I’m moving on.</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>By my will I relinquish this cubical place,<br>and abdicate this life with my own hand.<br>I will take this life to live in other ways.<br>My memory will fade as I move onward.<br>My works will fall that others might build anew.<br>I terminate this time office tomorrows.<br>All things must end; I end thiw work life here.</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Soon shall come the day of this surrender<br>the abdication of my work in the world.<br>I shall return my badge, and my computer<br>things I used though they were never mine.<br> And then I will depart for new tomorrows<br>HUDGone shall cleanse my ghosts from here.<br>I’ll travel on to death and liberation.</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>I drop this burden<br>looking to the horizon;<br>Freedom, death, freedom</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",serif'>Shawn Jacobson<br><a href="mailto:sdj60259@aol.com">sdj60259@aol.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>