congrats on the successful secession!  Nice to see you, Dara, +Steve and everyone else
hugs
Mira

Mira!  I'm so delighted you have found your way to us, and have joined us here in this our band of the banned.   You were about the only good thing left at the other site, and now we are so much the richer that you have come to us.  Yes, indeed this is the secession, and a successful one it is, and ever more so.  I will always be grateful to you and honor you for how you spoke the truth to power, and didn't fear the consequences, didn't count the cost.  Did you get banned too?  Dara got banned merely for being my sister, banned pre-emptively as it were.  And then there were those who spoke well of me, and earned swift banishment.  What nonsense!  Dara and I have an expression for it, which I'd better not repeat here, but which fits the situation aptly.  In any case, I greet you with all my love, with all my heart, and am pleased and happy to once again and for always be able to say to you welcome, welcome home.  At last we have found the place.  Now let the festivities begin in earnest, and the conversation continue!  

Welcome Mira! SO glad you have made it here. I am interested in knowing if you are banned form there as well. You surely will be when they find out you are here!

I hope you post here often, you always have interesting things to say!
Love, Dara

Nope, I didn't have the honour of being banned *grin* ... dropped in a couple of times at the other site to play the 'string poem' game but didn't bother to post anything.  Too many categories, poems aren't being read and commented on as they used to, it's a hassle.  I wondered what had happened to the two of you didn't get your email addresses before the site closed down for a few days.
I've been on another poetry board, wildpoetryforum.com ... they have a few categories set up but most of the poems get posted on the main board, as they used to at voicesnet ... and as I see you have here  :D  Don't know what he was thinking at the other site.  Ah well.
Haven't had time for much of a look around yesterday, had a friend over.  I'll just browse around now *grin*   Wow I didn't realize so many people were banned from the other board.  
Giant hugs to both of you!!
Mira

It's really good to have you here with us.  Thank you so much.  People always ask me about Silke, and I really appreciate it; it's just that the answer is complicated.  But I'll try: she is very much alive, but she is terribly, terribly fragile, and is living in intensive care.  Her heart is extremely unstable.  She takes nothing by mouth.  She faces a further surgery on Saturday; this is one of a series of surgeries which are reconstructive in nature.  The surgeries are considered necessary for her survival, but the last one was a failure and almost killed her; her heart stopped and the surgery had to be stopped immediately.  It was therefore a failure, and then Silke was comatose for many days afterward, and we were so worried she would not wake up at all.  But she did, and now we face another surgery.  The general anaesthetic is extremely challenging for her, especially for her heart.  This surgery on Saturday will be performed by two highly regarded specialists from Berlin, so we hope and trust and pray that it will be successful.  Silke requires the services of two guards stationed with her at all times, because she has sustained grave injuries at the hands of a madman who has attacked her within the hospital itself.  This insane individual is diabolically cunning and has seemingly inexhaustible resources, so he wages a one-man war on Silke with incredible legal resources which permit him to operate virtually with impunity.  He faces the court on February eighteenth, but is free until then on bail and his own recognizance, which is utterly absurd.  There are some grave deficiencies with the German legal system when it comes to crimes against women and victim's rights.  If this man were to have not attacked Silke both in her home and in the hospital, she would be extremely fragile because of her heart and other problems, but she would not be suffering from all these knife wounds and multiple broken bones, which include virtually her entire ribcage and one arm.  She has black and blue shoeprints on her body from this madman actually kicking her so hard we believe he ruptured her spleen.  We call Silke eine tapfere kleine Kaempferin, a valiant little warrior, because she quite simply refuses to die.  She wants to live, to love and to be loved.  She holds a doctorate and is an awe-inspiring mathematical genius, but she is also a sweet and very, very pretty girl of twenty-three who wants to be free and play with her dog and her cats, who would like to know happiness and hang out with me, and with Dara.  My poems always make her cry, she tells me, but only tears of happiness.  It is my highest joy to make her happy.  I adore her as my gossamer goddess, my fragile butterfly, my Silke shining in the sky, always, always, always...

Wow, I knew she was in hospital for heart surgery, didn't know the details though, esp about the sick maniac ... I'm so sorry to hear!!!!  Yes, Germany may be advanced in some ways, but attitudes towards violence to women are shamefully outmoded ... as is the legal system in that regard.  I'm glad she at least has some protection, and friends who can help look out for her ... and of course, dear +Steve, huge outpourings of love from you, which I know will fortify her even overseas,
hugs
Mira

Thanks, Mira.  Your kind words help and heal more than you know.  I know Silke reads what she can in the hospital, and she will appreciate your kindness as well.  This is the very most tragic situation which I have ever, ever dreamed of being involved in.  It is completely insane, beyond all understanding, and ostensibly hopeless.  Yet, we hope.  Dum spiro spero, where there is life there is hope...  

In the end,  this nightmare will be remembered as what we did for love...