INDEED, JOHN, THANK GOD WE DON'T HAVE TO GRIEVE ALONE AND...YOUR LAST LINE GIVES ALL THAT GRIEVE SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO. KUDOS! LOVE, BLESSINGS AND FAITH...HIS+INSPIRATIONS.
Once again, you have taken a word like grief, and wrung all of the meaning it possibly has in a single poem. It is your style and your great aptitude.
Except for grieving my lost hands for a while, I have not had great grief, yet, from loss like so many have when they lose someone very close. But perhaps I will.
An inspired write that sends a clear reminder to any reader that much the way Werner Erhard believes: "Happiness is a function of accepting what is." Grief, as you point out, is but a layer to be dealt with in the quest for happiness, but by dealing with it, one has to nod and also accept. Otherwise, the lesson of the experience is placed in jeopardy. This is a well-conceived and thorough alert we should all pay attention to by rereading and copying its teaching.
Most prominent for me is how acutely you appear here to be ‘writing what you know.’ The authenticity rips off the page, both being beautiful and agonizing. You have described this emotional state in the enormity of its hankering presence, and it flows smoothly down to the “….finally float away.” What a perfect ending! I stumbled on stanza #7 and feel it broke the flow and feel this poem would be stronger without #7. My favorite lines are: “Grief as if kissed/By the one missed,” {that is a unique and astonishingly-accurate reveal} and the lines: “To reach the surface,/Then finally float away.” There is a gentleness in that last line that has such positivity and peace in it. Thank you for writing this; I identify with the wholeness you captured so well. ~~ djl
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Except for grieving my lost hands for a while, I have not had great grief, yet, from loss like so many have when they lose someone very close. But perhaps I will.
Ron