There are moments....

 Ashes of Life

BY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

Love has gone and left me and the days are all alike;

Eat I must, and sleep I will, — and would that night were here!

But ah! — to lie awake and hear the slow hours strike!

Would that it were day again! — with twilight near!

Love has gone and left me and I don't know what to do;

This or that or what you will is all the same to me;

But all the things that I begin I leave before I'm through, —

There's little use in anything as far as I can see.

Love has gone and left me, — and the neighbors knock and borrow,

And life goes on forever like the gnawing of a mouse, —

And to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow

There's this little street and this little house.

      Ashes of Life, is nearer my earlier experience of grief. Still there are moments when I feel as St. Vincent Millay expresses. The last line, "There's this little street and this little house."  does describe The Little House on The Prairie which is on a street 4 blocks long.

       St. Vincent Millay is the poet who gave me the phrase "the presence of absence" which has been an accurate description of the experience of grief. Joanne often appears in my dreams. The appearances and dreams are nothing dramatic, we're just doing ordinary things. While my life is constantly in her absence there are times in which that absence is particularly acute. 

        Grief aside, I realize how fortunate I am and I remain deeply grateful.

Takk for alt,

Al