Grief, the Creative Process, and the Making of a Poem
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Authors
Nawrocki, Amy
Issue Date
2023-03-24
Type
Other
Language
en_US
Keywords
Grief and Memory, Literary Legacy, Poetry
Alternative Title
Abstract
My good friend David K. Leff died suddenly in May, 2022. David was an accomplished essayist, poet, and nonfiction writer; historian, volunteer firefighter, town moderator, and retired deputy commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection. We became friends through writing, and his love of nature, cultivation of deep travel, and theory of Terranexus influence my own writing and that of many others. Final edits for his collection The Blue Marble Gazetteer lay on his desk the day he died. The collection would be published posthumously in the fall, a love letter to a planet in crisis, rich with beauty and warning, alive with a prescient awareness of his own mortality. I recognized a personal need to write a poem for David that would be shared publicly. How to capture, condense, and chronicle the sum of a person's life, love, and impact? While immediately felt, grief of any kind is long and slow. Poetry on demand is not my forte. But this is the poet's task, and it now became a means for me to speak to him, share his great work, and begin the long process of coming to terms.