Friday Yesterday Julia and I buried the ashes of writer Rachel Kranz, a dear friend who died a year ago. Her remains were divided between three who were close to her, and I chose to bury those allotted to me on the shore of Lake Eva, which sits on the edge of a bluff in […]
Longfellow turned to the story of Absolom to console a friend who had lost a son. “Chamber over the Gate” captures the grief in a supportive way.
Wordsworth has written some of the world’s great poems for coping with aging.
Poetry cannot bring back a son one has lost but it can capture his beauty, as this Jeanne Vote lyric does.
In a memorial service for my friend Rachel Kranz, I will talk about what her novels reveal about her.
A Romanian man, presumed dead and unable to convince the authorities otherwise, recalls Doc Daneeka in “Catch 22.”
Someone I love very dearly has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I turn to “Sonny’s Blues” and “King Lear” to find adequate words.
When Ursula K. Le Guin died yesterday, I thought of the “Farthest Shore,” the young adult novel where she grapples with humans’ fear of death.
Trump handled the death of the four Green Berets who died in Niger like Col. Cathcart in “Catch-22” would have. A better model would be Ned Stark in “Game of Thrones.”
