mourning Archives - The Dewdrop

Pete Mackey – Mourning

May 2, 2021April 30, 2021 Vanessa Able

The first spark of Pete Mackey's poem Mourning appeared one evening as he was cleaning his fireplace—a nightly ritual in Massachusetts winters.

Book Bits, Book of the Month

I Had a Brother Once: A Poetic Ritual for a Sibling’s Grief

April 29, 2021April 29, 2021 Vanessa Able

I Had a Brother Once is an elegiac and honest account of the devastation of suicide, the senselessness of grief, and the imperatives and difficulties of narrative when a loved one's life is on the page.

Interview

Embodying Grief – A Conversation with Liz Tichenor

January 22, 2021June 15, 2021 Vanessa Able

Author and priest Liz Tichenor talks about her book The Night Lake, about dealing with loss and what the topography of grief looks like after seven years.

Featured, Featured Poetry

Chris Alaimo – Lovely Kid

August 16, 2020August 16, 2020 Vanessa Able

Chris Alaimo's Lovely Kid is an expression of grief for the freedom and innocence through which we explore ourselves in exploring the world in childhood.

Letting the Old Thrills Die: C.S. Lewis on Being Alive to New Joy
Holding on to what is thrilling to us can be stifling and prevent us from paving the way for new experiences.
Working With the Soul Nerve – Resmaa Menakem on Grounding Our Bodies
Starting with the damage done by racism to human bodies, Resmaa Menakem presents a pragmatic approach to healing through the body.
What is Meditation? Shinzen Young on How to Deepen Our Focus
Shinzen Young on the most basic principle of mindfulness meditation: the cultivation of focus that can be practiced at any moment of the day, during any activity.
The Most Beautiful Thing We Can Experience Is The Mysterious: Albert Einstein’s Living Philosophy
Albert Einstein lays out his living philosophy and the set of ideals that he held in his personal, spiritual and political life.
Joseph Campbell On Experiencing Mystery
Joseph Campbell takes on the notion of experiencing mystery and considers how religious narratives can actually stymie the expansive human experience of transcendence.

Tishani Doshi – Hope is the Thing
Tishani Doshi's poem pays homage to a twelve-year-old girl who died of exhaustion last year during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Anne Hillman – We Look With Uncertainty
Hillman's poem about uncertainty and regeneration acknowledges the vulnerability of human existence 'which is every moment / at the brink of death', standing, waiting, 'learning to love.'
Jane Hirshfield – All The Difficult Hours and Minutes
In Hirshfield's poem, calamity turns to calmness when things turn into themselves, a principle that goes to the heart of transformative practice.
Shangyang Fang – Chaconne
Fang's beautiful and complex poem addresses the questions of sin and redemption against the background of a young monk entering a monastery.
Jericho Brown – Bullet Points
Jericho Brown's poem talks to the weight carried by black Americans who live under the constant threat of police violence and injustice.