Give Sorrow Words
Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak,
Whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.
(Shakespeare, Macbeth, 5.1.50-1)
Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak,
Whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.
(Shakespeare, Macbeth, 5.1.50-1)
photo by www.moonraker.com A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning. —James Dickey From the length of the bibligraphy of his poetic works, we can surmise that Mr. Dickey was frequently struck by metaphoric lightning. Mark Twain gives us this advice: “It is best to read the…
“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” —The Buddha (historically, Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.)
“They damned a river and called it a lake,” she said. So Austin, Texas and Alton, Illinois have this in common. Lake Merritt in Oakland and Clear Lake in Northern California are really estuaries…with inflows and outflows. A lake by any other name swims as sweet. A great pleasure in my life is the slow…
Remember that ultimately going for the money is 100% wrong. Going for love of what you’re doing is sort of 60% right. You can fill that other 40% with a little practical thinking: I also want to make a living at this. I don’t want to starve. —George Lucas, Quoted in USA Today
Kathleen Norris (Photo by Gregory Yamamoto from the Barclay Agency) Telling a poet not to look for connections is like telling a farmer not to look at the rain gauge after a storm. –page 171, “Dakota: A Spiritual Geography,” by Kathleen Norris (my lineation for emphasis) Click here to read a marvelous interview between Homiletics…
Easy grow. Grow easy. Go easy. How can we grow easier in our lives and our skins?
I loved the quote you use for this thought. My current book is about unwitnessed grief. I said that grief has many siblings — guilt, anger, separation among others but of course, Shakespeare says it best.
Your course sounds wonderful. I’ve suggested the “I remember” exercise and also the “I don’t remember” exercise that Natalie Goldberg uses in her Writing the Bones workshop. But your expansion of it to include differing points of view and to make it a way for people to express ranges of sorrow is truly inspired. Thank you for telling us about it on the Women writing the West website and for having this site and blog. You are appreciated! Warmly, Jane
I have articls about grief and a journal called A Year and a Day which I kept after losing my wife. Idaho State Unvieristy is the publisher.
Michael Corrigan