Shadi Karamroudi: All the Time
Hearing that her teenage sister is planning to commit suicide, Toranj is in limbo, not knowing how to react.
Desne A. Crossley: My Cousin’s Suicide
The first lesson in keeping secrets came in 1962, when I was eight.
Alison Luterman: Snowy Plover
Their wild wheelings trace the shape
of wonder and grief moving inside us,
pewter, then platinum.
It goes away like that; it comes back.
It carves a black, moving river in the air.
Hart Crane: The Air Plant
The lizard’s throat, held bloated for a fly,
Balloons but warily from this throbbing perch.
Ernesto Cardenal: Prayer for Marilyn Monroe
Lord,
welcome this girl known throughout the world as Marilyn Monroe,
although that was not her real name
Edwin Arlington Robinson: Richard Cory
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
Daniel Lawless: The Gun My Sister Killed Herself With
Was a cubit long and weighed half as much
As an average newborn U.S. baby.
Marilyn Monroe: Fragments
my beaded rays have the colors I’ve
seen in a painting—ah life they
have cheated you
Video: Amelia
This film explores the colorful life of the photographer Amelia Le Brun and offers a window into how her past demons and nostalgic childhood memories have shaped who Amelia is today.
Elizabeth Mercurio: Three Poems
Years have passed
since I last tried to take my life.
Wendy Mnookin: A Love Poem
I don’t want to complain about my mother, because she did a lot of nice things. Some very considerate things. She came to Boston when my younger son was born … Continue reading
Charles Davidson: Grace Given As Grace Received
Of all the besetting sins of an increasingly narcissistic age of emptiness and brokenness, the failure to love oneself may be a root sin that is perpetuated down the cycles of the generations.
Video: Six Shooter
Directed by Martin McDonagh and starring Brendan Gleason, this film, which mixes darkness and humor, won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
Deborah Bogen: Season of Light — and of Darkness
If you happen to meet someone for whom the season of light is a reminder of a dark time, of a sorrow or a loneliness, take a moment and sit with them, let them be that dark. Believe in their sorrow as you believe also in joy. Believe in them.
