The darkest day of the year is behind us -- each day now there will be a little more light. Have you had a harder time gearing up for the holidays? Feeling less than festive? Sometimes we miss those not with us most during this time and we are more emotionally vulnerable than on other days. Or, if you lose someone around this time, you are especially tender. I always appreciate poetry that makes me feel better about loss, that helps me process it. In October I … [Read more...]
Poem for my mother
August 1999: Light is a measure of time Scientists have found the oldest point in the universe: a galaxy filled with new stars, and all day long I’ve been thinking about my mother. How long it has been since the nun came to fetch me from class so I could wait for my brother to take me home, even though I was in trouble for using CliffNotes in my Macbeth paper. I practiced driving on the way, Jack tossed the keys to me, figuring, perhaps, concentration would hold … [Read more...]
Slice of Solace: Edward Hirsch
“Implicit in poetry is the notion that we are deepened by heartbreaks, that we are not so much diminished as enlarged by grief, by our refusal to vanish---to let others vanish—without leaving a verbal record.” Edward Hirsch I came across this quote yesterday when a FB friend posted it. I think it comes from "Poetry, Prayer, and Process: Edward Hirsch and Rachel Eliza Griffiths In Conversation" posted June 26, 2014 on the Academy of American Poets site. … [Read more...]
Celebrating Mother’s Day with Lesléa Newman
Happy Mother’s Day! I hope it is a great day and that you are able to celebrate in some way. My heart goes out to all of you who are missing your mother or are missing being a mother this Sunday. I am happy to share two poems by Lesléa Newman. They are from her latest book, I Carry My Mother. If the name Lesléa Newman sounds familiar, you may have recently read about the 25th anniversary of her ground-breaking book Heather Has Two Mommies. A new edition just came … [Read more...]
Sharon Fiffer “Losing and Finding”
Losing and Finding Someone close to me suffered a loss. A real one. It’s something that, without question, will impact her life forever. What do we do when that happens to people we love? We offer our company, maybe some food, a shoulder to cry on, a listening ear, an open heart. We also share their rage and sense of injustice. Life didn’t keep its promise! We, too, raise our fists and shout and cry. We also offer platitudes, easy phrases that someone might have … [Read more...]