In this busy rational world, how do we recognize our own feelings? When my life companion, my husband of 52 two years, the father of our daughter, was diagnosed with a fatal cancer I just kept on. Like Gladys Knight and the Pips sang, I just “kept on keeping on”. And when he died, I continued the same way – except I was upset that I felt so numb, that I wasn’t grieving, as I imagined grieving to happen. I found myself struggling at journalling but I kept pulsing out strange poems, poems that I came to realize were my grieving coming out in strange ways. Then someone I knew, who had seen my poems on my blog, recognized them as grieving and suggested she write prayers to speak to each poem, and that we put together a book.
Encountering Grief in poetry and prayer is published on Amazon
Excerpt 3 - Difficult Awakening
On the day I wake,
still on my side but
stretching into
the centre of our bed,
I notice I no longer
listen
for kitchen sounds
or the key
opening the door.
Knowing I am attuned
to being alone
is the loss
that feels like a betrayal -
as though I have accepted
your absence.
Learning Living 