Monday, September 21, 2020

Poem: Death is Nothing

 


Death Is Nothing
 
Death is nothing.
I have only walked into the next room.
I am me. You are you.
What I was for you, in your heart, I am still.
Call me by the name you have always given me.
Talk to me the way you always have.
Do not change your tone of voice.
Do not look solemn or sad.
Continue to laugh at what made us laugh together.
Pray, smile.
Think of me.
Pray for me.
Let my name be spoken at home
The way it always has
without emphasis of any kind.
Without an overhanging shadow.
Life’s significance is all that it has always been.
The seams have not been broken, the thread has not been cut.
Why should I no longer be in your thoughts
Simply because I am no longer in your sight?
I am not far, just on the other side of the road.
You see?  All is well.

Henry Scott-Holland

 

 

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

The Artist's Wife - Lena Olin and Bruce Dern


Claire (Lena Olin) lives a quiet domestic life in the Hamptons as the wife of celebrated artist Richard Smythson (Bruce Dern). Once a promising painter herself, Claire now lives in the shadow of her husband’s illustrious career. While preparing work for his final show, Richard’s moods become increasingly erratic, and he is diagnosed with dementia. As his memory and behavior deteriorate, she shields his condition from the art community while trying to reconnect him with his estranged daughter and grandson from a previous marriage. Challenged by the loss of her world as she knew it, Claire must now decide whether to stand with Richard on the sidelines or step into the spotlight herself.

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Poem: Unveiling

Unveiling 


In the cemetery

a mile away
from where we used to live,
my aunts and mother
my father and uncles lie
in two long rows,
almost the way
they used to sit around
the long planked table
at family dinners.
And walking beside
the graves today, down
one straight path
and up the next,
I don't feel sad, exactly,
just left out a bit,
as if they kept
from me the kind
of grown-up secret
they used to share
back then, something
I'm not quite ready yet
to learn.

Linda Pasten

Speaking Grief: A New Documentary

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SPEAKING GRIEF is a public media initiative aimed at creating a more grief-aware society by validating the experience of grievers and helping to guide those who wish to support them.