grief
Pioneer in a Mountaineer
This is a picture of my sister Josie and her late husband Edison. The poem-elfing that follows is a private one, written and posted as a thank-you to my other sister, Mary K. With Josie’s and Mary K.’s permission, I’m sharing it with you. A little background before you read the poem. Until late […]
MoreShapes on a ship
Shapes by Ruth Stone In the longer view it doesn’t matter. However, it’s that having lived, it matters. So that every death breaks you apart. You find yourself weeping at the door of your own kitchen, overwhelmed by loss. And you find yourself weeping as you pass the homeless person head in hands […]
MoreA fortunate misfortune
Lament by Louise Gluck Suddenly, after you die, those friends who never agreed about anything agree about your character. They’re like a houseful of singers rehearsing the same score: you were just, you were kind, you lived a fortunate life. No harmony. No counterpoint. Except they’re not performers; real tears are shed. […]
MoreAn unwelcome guest
Death Barged In by Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno In his Russian greatcoat slamming open the door with an unpardonable bang, and he has been here ever since. He changes everything, rearranges the furniture, his hand hovers by the phone; he will answer now, he says; he will be the answer. Tonight he sits […]
MoreSuddenly last year
Sudden by Nick Flynn If it had been a heart attack, the newspaper might have used the word massive, as if a mountain range had opened inside her, but instead it used the word suddenly, a light coming on in an empty room. The telephone fell from my shoulder, a […]
MoreSometimes, a poem
Sometimes, the Field by Holly Wren Spaulding Sometimes I bring my hunger to the field. I sidestep the soft mounds, the ants at their labor, their back and forth with grains of sand. I wait in the milkweed and withering thistle, all of it turning and rustling in the wind. I mean […]
MoreA daughter’s sun
Waiting At The Window by A. A. Milne These are my two drops of rain Waiting on the window-pane. I am waiting here to see Which the winning one will be. Both of them have different names. One is John and one is James. All the best and all the […]
MoreDeath on holiday
“Girls’ weekend” and “death” really shouldn’t keep company, but a few weekends ago they did, and all things considered, it was nice. This November, for the first time in 23 years, my high school girlfriends gathered without our friend Christine, who died at the tail end of last year. The remaining eight of us weren’t […]
MoreAll things pass
Today I spoke with someone in deep distress. The voice on the other end of the phone droned on in a monotone occasionally punctuated with a choking sound. Hearing pain on the other end of the phone and being unable to offer physical comfort, I was left with a constipated kind of feeling. “Time heals, […]
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