Like most politicians who take the job seriously, Tim Davlin could get testy and short when made to look hypocritical or just wrong. Once when we’d backed him into a corner editorially, he announced to a city council hearing that he doesn’t read Illinois Times, as though the little paper didn’t merit his attention. Later when he saw us in person, he gave the big smile and handshake for which he was famous, and claimed, as politicians do, that he was misquoted or at least misunderstood. “What I meant was I didn’t read that particular issue,” he said. OK Mayor, apology accepted. Later we got him to seal the deal by posing for our year in review cover.

On Tuesday after our office heard the news of the mayor’s death, Anita Stienstra, a poet who writes Illinois Times’ calendar, paused at her desk to listen for a larger meaning. Her composition, asking for whom the bell tolls, is offered here as a commentary and a tribute to Tim Davlin, our worthy adversary and friend. –Fletcher Farrar, editor

The Mayor

A tragedy with a bitter aftertaste. Life lost, so terribly sad. Even worse – lingering insecurities – the leader of our Golden City, Springfield, drowned in hopelessness. Makes us feel Perhaps the water rises Not far from our own lips.

Anita Stienstra Dec. 14, 2010