A passage in Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon has me thinking about the meaning of tragedy in our lives.
Tag Archives: death and dying
Using Stephen King to Reflect upon Tragedy
On Autumn and the Preciousness of Life
I welcome in Autumn with John Keats’s “Ode to Autumn,” which also works as a poem about dying.
Berry Comes into the Peace of Wild Things
In “Testament” the late Wendell Berry instructed us on how we should respond to his death.
Birds as Emissaries from the Afterlife
Can birds function as emissaries from the afterlife? I’ve had my own experience, as has Lucille Clifton.
The Memoir Comes to the End (For Now)
In which I bring my memoir to a close, looking at my life at 75 and imagining what is to come.
I Hear the Desert When You Cry
Hagar’s feelings of pain and abandonment are uppermost in my mind at the moment upon learning that a friend is dying. This captures our own feelings of abandonm
After the 2nd Death, a Book Project
After a year of intense grieving, I immersed myself in a book I was writing: “Better Living through Beowulf.”
Lit in the Year after Justin’s Death
In the year following Justin’s death, important works were Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Tennyson’s In Memoriam.
Job’s Doubts vs. Job’s Faith
Job’s assertion of faith arises when, at the same time, he is doubting God’s justice. Gibran’s poem on death provides insight into this paradox.

