read deep, breathe easy
'So many things seem filled with the intent to be lost,' writes Elizabeth Bishop in the first stanza of one of her most well-known poems. Having lost her father before she even knew him, her mother to mental illness at a very young age, and years later her partner to suicide, Bishop was close to… Continue reading One Art – Elizabeth Bishop’s Poem About Learning to Lose
Victor Hugo's claim that 'Those who do not weep do not see,' is echoed here by poet Naomi Shihab Nye in her poem Kindness. Sorrow and grief will soften and open up our hearts, priming them for kindness and compassion in a way that's never quite possible before the experience of a devastating loss. Our… Continue reading Naomi Shihab Nye’s Poem on Loss and Kindness
This short story by Anton Chekhov was written when he was just 26 years old, a medical student in Moscow who was writing in his spare time to support his family. 'Heartache' is a devastating sketch of failed attempts to communicate loss and grief. The quote at the beginning of the story is the first… Continue reading Chekhov’s Heartache