“Why I’m Not Dead Yet”
Some come fishing, bent.
With paraphernalia and flies,.
While I prefer to sit.
Quietly on the banks of the morbid,.
Dipping my feet, dabbing my hair.
With wet hands, bringing out the curl.

Peggy was born Margaret Ann Miles on March 8, 1948, in Painesville, Ohio and passed in Portland,
Oregon on July 17, 2024. She grew up in Madison, Ohio. Her father, Robert ‘Keith’ Miles, was the small
town’s doctor, and WW II veteran. Her mother, Ruth, née Cornwell, was a nurse and homemaker. She
was preceded in death by her older sister Paula and younger brother Tom. She leaves behind her
husband and best friend of forty-seven years, Richard Blakeslee, three step-children that she cared
about so much, Chris, Robin, and Katie Blakeslee; grandchildren, Simone and Chloé Blakeslee Smith,
Dita and Ivan Babash. A sister-in-law, Annie Miles, nieces Katie and Amy Miles.

Peggy was her high school valedictorian and graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in history in
1971. She was an author (The Bracebridge Mystery Series, Bantam Books), a poet, a location sound
recordist in the film industry in the late seventies and early eighties in Portland, spent ten years in Los
Angeles producing public relations films, and a long career producing and writing video productions for
associations and the government in Washington, DC. Moving back to Portland in 2009 she found, in the
Ardenwald-Johnson Creek neighborhood, what she always wanted, the cottage at the edge of the city,
with the added bonus of great neighbors and a perfect backyard/raise bed space. She was a good
gardener. She loved her cat, Spark. She will be missed.

“Sundown Indecision”
Inside, white eyelet curtains.
Blow low over the lamp,.
Their threaded flowers growing.
Evening blue, then golden;.
Outside, the palm frond’s green.
Still catches scarlet sunset.
On the shining surfaces.
Of its dangling fingers- -.
Which is better?
Which is better?
I can turn the light on.
Any time.
West Hollywood, Calif., 1990