It can laugh with me. It can cry with me. It can bring together what was once separated.
Music can tell me what lips are afraid to say.
Music can bring back what I lost.
Music alone therefore is chosen.
Margarete Kernbach is my grandmother on my mother’s side. I found this parchment with her words following my mother’s death in 2012. It was among the things she left behind, very simply preserved in a plastic frame. I never knew my Oma wrote poetry. Nor do I know if this was the only poem or if there were ever any other writings by her. I only know of this one.
Discovering this little poem ties me to my grandmother in a profound way, at least for me it does. Not that I realized it at that moment though. I…
It was so easy to get swept up in the emotions of each of these pieces describing life, living and loss. The accompanying music video to Ivor’s piece is such a complement to both poems. May you experience a rich fullness reading and listening to the music as I did.
Grief is a powerful feeling They say it has seven stages I don’t know about that But I strongly believe That grief is like the waves, In a turbulent sea. It comes and goes But it sustains, In a never-ending manner. It grips your heart, Forces you to have Ups and downs Over and over again. It creates new wounds But often, grief rips open Old healed wounds too. No matter how hard you try, You can’t run away, From its clutches Grief will always find you Though it might take a while, It will eventually hit you With an impact worse Than a ground-shattering earthquake, or, Even an ear-splitting thunderstorm. Grief is like a sharp knife, That’s permanently lodged In your heart, That twists painfully, each time A familiar memory washes over you. It comes and goes, With varying intensities Just like the waves in the sea. No matter how hard you run, Grief is hard to shake off
wish i hadn’t lost my right glove hopefully the last string won’t break the sun’s going down only one dollar so far please don’t make me sing why is my left leg so big
filling us with an excited calm expanding our knowing of the joy in being together the price paid for love is a release into it passionately with purpose and commitment
fulfilling the needs freely understanding your partner it leads us to intensity and happiness this pursued connection forged in needing bliss for ourselves this profound reward we seek eternally