In the hands of artists, a difficult topic like grief can be given handles, places to hold on to. And while we’re holding, the artist can point our vision to something we might not have seen before or place our fingers on something we thought was too difficult to touch.
This is true of the talented contributors gathered here, who had a lot to say about grief. Grief that exists in divorce, death, goodbyes, lost babies, lost love, disease, or just feeling lost—reminding us of all the pain of this world but also of the beauty that can exist in ashes. In this issue, we are reminded that we can stand to have our hearts moved, even wrenched, a little more often—because we want to be softened to the suffering (and the joys) of this world.
FEATURING 2011 McCabe Poetry Prize judged by Naomi Shihab Nye
