Like a sign finally read after years of passing by,
turning down the path I’m required to take,
asking what happens in this time called “grief”.
There’s work to be done, putting a life away,
hidden fears discovered, and stories told of
what I was too close to see in our shared time.
The busyness loosens and tasks frustrate.
Suddenly I am distraught and yelling, lost
and alone, shaking in anger.
Sometimes my voice wobbles and eyes tear.
Sometimes I am happy in a new moment.
Sometimes I don’t know who I am.
Some who have walked this path tell me
it never ends, but it has corners of comfort
and grows less steep and rough.
I want to be . . .
I don’t know what this “new normal” is
yet.
Author: joanvinallcox
Joan Vinall-Cox, Ph.D. is a lifelong learner, retired communications professor, and rabid reader who has taught in both the college and university systems.
Her Ph.D., in 2004 was an Autoethnographic Arts-Based Narrative Inquiry focused on moving from technophobia to technophilia.
She is a widow from a pretty happy marriage and a mother to a strong and kind daughter.
Her interests include Centering Prayer, Multiple Intelligences, Attention Deficit Disorder and its connection to creativity, Jung, Campbell’s Monomyth, and Arts-Based Narrative Inquiry.
Alone – Credo
Shared Poem – Ros Barber
I’m sharing a poem by the poet, Ros Barber, with what I think is good advice, especially in midsummer.
Impermanence
Alone
Vigil Questions
Sorrow Creeps
Dreamspace
Cognitive Dissonance
The shadow of a bird flew across the sunlit pillar to the noise of destruction: Cognitive dissonance.
Lost Password
I’ve lost the password to what used to be my life.
The air is strange and I’m losing my sense of balance.
I search through remnants scattered in the home I sold,
Wondering what to keep, or sell, or trash.
In the coffeeshop, the chatter is of family discord:
Recent losses, expected deaths, and mangled hopes
Fall like tears from the balcony, splashing on me,
Where I sit, trying to create a new password.







