This season of COVID brings up many emotions. There is fear and uncertainty, a sense of how everything is put on hold. As a result, I have revisited the subject of how to express grief in writing.
- We grieve because what we once knew as normal has changed.
- We may grieve because our lives have radically changed.
- We may be isolated.
Our normal activities are curtailed.
We may have lost employment or our businesses, another form of grief.
We may have been laid off and are struggling to pay bills and feed our families. We grief at the losses in our lives.
And then there may be the loss of loved one by death.
When my dear friend died a month ago, I did not get to be with her because we were all in isolation. Instead I spoke with her by phone and then I sat on my back patio and I wrote a poem.
I wrote this poem for her, it is called, “Saying Goodbye.”
Writing this poem helped me say goodbye in deepening layers. I have listened to it over and over again, hearing parts of my heart that I didn’t even know were speaking when I first wrote it.
And then, one night, I made a video from my now in home studio where I teach classes via Zoom.
Writing has always been a powerful way for me to express.
It is important that we have a chance to speak out and that we are heard.
I am a writer who has worked for decades in utilizing creativity with mental health.
I know the value of writing to cope with grief.
I have utilized writing to cope in my own life as well as in the lives of others.
Writing allows a safe place to examine and express our emotions.
There is no “right or wrong” in this process. Writing allows us a place to go and be “heard on the page.”
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