Artist’s statement:

This poem about grief reflects the Journal’s mission of supporting work in the area of health and well-being. It is a reminder to the reader (whether healer, sufferer, or observer) that recovery from grief is an individual process and that awareness of this universal condition does not necessarily ease the pain. Isolation is a frequent characteristic of bereavement and often simply being present is the most valuable response a friend, family member, or practitioner can provide.

The Human Condition

Something universal

Pangs of separation, a sea

of grief so vast it will be years

before we glimpse the other shore

How many times, centuries, millennia

has this been expressed?

Little solace in the particular,

in the moment

Knowing

that others have experienced

this darkness.

The light of hope,

That human light that glimmers

under the crack of the closed door

(tomorrow, perhaps ever so slightly ajar)

Some knock and leave.

Thank you to those

who tarry outside, whispering,

“We know you’re in there.”