Walt Whitman’s “Whispers of Heavenly Death” - Exploring the unknowns after...
Walt Whitman’s poetry has been immortalized by his beautiful, visceral tributes to nature that leave us rethinking our ideas of the world around us. Whitman begins triumphantly in “Whispers of Heavenly...
View Article“Death is a Dialogue” by Emily Dickinson - A dialogue between death and...
Emily Dickinson, one of the greatest American poets of all time, is no lightweight when it comes to exploring death. In her poem “Death is a Dialogue,” Dickinson touches on a few contrasting ideas that...
View ArticleAccepting Death While Living Life - Mark Nepo lends some insight about...
I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that, here at SevenPonds, we’ve talked several times before about accepting our deaths and embracing the unknown. We know there are benefits to accepting death: making...
View ArticleTalking About Death and Releasing Fear - Ram Dass explains how talking about...
Recently we spoke with Jon Underwood on the topic of Death Cafes. In the article (which you can find here), we discussed how important it is to have a safe environment where we can talk openly about...
View Article“Father” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox - A poem about appreciation and rememberance...
As we approach Father’s Day this Sunday, it becomes particularly important to make time for our fathers by sending them a card or remembering to give them a call. For those of us who still have our...
View Article“The Dead” by Albert Laighton - A poem accepting the different views we have...
Today, society finally allows for different points of view regarding death and the afterlife. Albert Laighton, a poet who lived during the mid-19th century, questions the different views people may...
View Article“Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White - A classic children's book addresses death...
In his classic children’s book Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White spins an enthralling tale about the unlikely friendship between a wise, composed spider and a kindly but confused pig. The book also helps...
View ArticleGod, Death, Happiness and Misfortune - Happiness and misfortune are brother...
Often misunderstood, or misinterpreted by many, Friedrich Nietzsche, the controversial philosopher whose work is as fascinating to ponder today as it was obscure in the late 1800s when he wrote about...
View ArticleBook Review: “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel - A fictional character takes a...
Everyone confronts grief differently. We all, consciously or unconsciously, create ways to cope and continue living as we deal with loss. Usually this involves some mixture of employing defense...
View ArticleAuthor Jorge Luis Borges on Time and Death - The Argentinian writer believed...
Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges had an interesting perspective on time and death. He also had an amazing talent and tendency to nail a truth down in one to three sentences. So precise with words...
View ArticleThe Significance of Reflection - Joy Harjo's poem shows how looking back can...
Joy Harjo is unique in that, not only is she an excellent writer, but she is a musician and a performer as well. That’s probably why her poems, including “Remember,” are so lyrical and seem to trip off...
View ArticleNot Death but Completeness - Looking at the optimism of Rabindranath Tagore's...
Back in September, I wrote a post on a poem by Rabindranath Tagore. In my weekly searches for literature on the subject of death, his name repeatedly comes up. I’ve tried to abstain from writing about...
View ArticleDeath as Transition - John Donne helps us see that we are all connected,...
You have probably heard the famous phrase “No man is an island,” whether in a classroom, or being quoted by one of your more pretentious friends. But you might be less familiar with the piece of...
View ArticleDeath as a Journey - Emily Dickinson's poem offers a peaceful look at death
I’ve been looking a lot at writers’ views on death itself lately, but not as much at what happens after death. Emily Dickinson offers her take on the afterlife in “Because I could not stop for Death,”...
View ArticleReincarnation or an Afterlife? - Carl Dennis contemplates both in "Eternal Life"
Reincarnation and ghosts are two end-of-life subjects I haven’t touched on much in this column. But Carl Dennis’s “Eternal Life” tackles both in a playful, pondering manner. This also means that he...
View ArticleGrief as a Gateway to the Divine - James Merrill explores the divine that is...
James Merrill’s elegiac poem, “A Dedication” observes grief in its most intimate setting: the mind. Addressed to his friend, the Dutch poet Hans Lodeizen (who died while still a young man in 1950), the...
View ArticleThe Role of Bargaining - Joyce Carol Oates sheds light on this important...
In a recent post, I wrote about the influence of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s Five Stages of Grief; and while reading through the stories of one of Joyce Carol Oates’s collections, Sourland, I came across...
View ArticleIn Memory of a Brother - Brendan Constantine looks at how bureaucracy helps...
“The Drowned Brother” is a eulogy-like poem that explores the revelation of the death of a brother in Brendan Constantine’s latest poetic novel “Calamity Joe”. In the poem, the narrator Calamity Joe...
View ArticleDeath and Splendor: The Christmas Tree - James Merrill writes on his own end...
Wound in lights, heavy with ornaments and heirlooms, photos of children now grown up or parents no longer here, the Christmas tree brightens the living room. It fills the floor with needles and scents...
View ArticleLearning how to Accept Death - Edna St. Vincent Millay expresses her struggle...
Edna St. Vincent Millay is no stranger to us at SevenPonds. While death remains a constant theme in many of her poems, her relationship with death oscillates between acceptance and repulsion—making her...
View Article
