Comments on: The Blessings of Complicated Grief http://www.robertpeake.com/archives/482-the-blessings-of-complicated-grief.html An American Poet in London Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:26:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Numerology of Grief (The Sixth Year) | Robert Peake http://www.robertpeake.com/archives/482-the-blessings-of-complicated-grief.html/comment-page-1#comment-103990 Numerology of Grief (The Sixth Year) | Robert Peake Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:35:52 +0000 http://www.robertpeake.com/?p=482#comment-103990 [...] the heart of a London winter, in the middle of my life, I am facing down problems for which the answers are not numbers, but a way of life. Throughout the upheaval of the past six [...] [...] the heart of a London winter, in the middle of my life, I am facing down problems for which the answers are not numbers, but a way of life. Throughout the upheaval of the past six [...]

]]> By: Robert http://www.robertpeake.com/archives/482-the-blessings-of-complicated-grief.html/comment-page-1#comment-29621 Robert Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:11:33 +0000 http://www.robertpeake.com/?p=482#comment-29621 Fascinating article in today's NYT about depression and creativity: http://nyti.ms/dtHDWP Fascinating article in today’s NYT about depression and creativity:

http://nyti.ms/dtHDWP

]]> By: Robert Peake http://www.robertpeake.com/archives/482-the-blessings-of-complicated-grief.html/comment-page-1#comment-4799 Robert Peake Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:06:19 +0000 http://www.robertpeake.com/?p=482#comment-4799 Thanks, Andy. So glad you and Jude got to watch that setting together. Look forward to catching up soon. Thanks, Andy. So glad you and Jude got to watch that setting together. Look forward to catching up soon.

]]> By: Andrew Philip http://www.robertpeake.com/archives/482-the-blessings-of-complicated-grief.html/comment-page-1#comment-4755 Andrew Philip Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:46:32 +0000 http://www.robertpeake.com/?p=482#comment-4755 Amen, Robert. Such a beautiful, powerful post. And such a beautiful, powerful setting by the Divine Comedy. I hadn't heard it before. Jude and I listened to it together. It makes perfect sense that you keep playing it. Thank you for sharing it with us. We will catch up properly some time soon ... Amen, Robert. Such a beautiful, powerful post. And such a beautiful, powerful setting by the Divine Comedy. I hadn’t heard it before. Jude and I listened to it together. It makes perfect sense that you keep playing it. Thank you for sharing it with us.

We will catch up properly some time soon …

]]> By: Robert http://www.robertpeake.com/archives/482-the-blessings-of-complicated-grief.html/comment-page-1#comment-1785 Robert Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:34:25 +0000 http://www.robertpeake.com/?p=482#comment-1785 Thanks for this thoughtful response, Frank. I, too, am grateful for the greater human understanding, and to know I am not alone. Thanks for this thoughtful response, Frank. I, too, am grateful for the greater human understanding, and to know I am not alone.

]]> By: Frank DiCostanzo http://www.robertpeake.com/archives/482-the-blessings-of-complicated-grief.html/comment-page-1#comment-1784 Frank DiCostanzo Sun, 06 Sep 2009 04:09:43 +0000 http://www.robertpeake.com/?p=482#comment-1784 Your post was quite moving and I'm grateful there are poets like you alive and pondering... >In this examination [of the complexities of life], it seems to me that the ways in which we, as a society, train ourselves and each other to blot out unpleasantness and to project an image of success based on consumption is, in fact, the real, and rampant, psychological “disorder.” My own poems strive to outline some of the "conspicuous" boundaries of consumer culture. I, however, believe the state of affairs goes well beyond a mass psychological disorder. The underlying principles of our economic system (to say nothing about public education) seem to thwart deeper understandings of all kinds, including an appreciation of instrumental music, visual arts, and, yes, poetry. One can see our cultural values at work in any quick comparison of starting salaries among, say, finance graduates and those many, cursed English majors. I am sorry I can't remark further on some of your poignant comments on the complexity of human grief and transcendence. I will only say I am grateful when I arrive at some new conclusion which transmutes (transports?) my grief into a dimension of human understanding I hadn't fathomed before. My reading your post tonight has reminded me I am not—despite my weary voice—alone in a wilderness of unknowingness. Your post was quite moving and I’m grateful there are poets like you alive and pondering…

>In this examination [of the complexities of life], it seems to me that the ways in which we, as a society, train ourselves and each other to blot out unpleasantness and to project an image of success based on consumption is, in fact, the real, and rampant, psychological “disorder.”

My own poems strive to outline some of the “conspicuous” boundaries of consumer culture. I, however, believe the state of affairs goes well beyond a mass psychological disorder. The underlying principles of our economic system (to say nothing about public education) seem to thwart deeper understandings of all kinds, including an appreciation of instrumental music, visual arts, and, yes, poetry. One can see our cultural values at work in any quick comparison of starting salaries among, say, finance graduates and those many, cursed English majors.

I am sorry I can’t remark further on some of your poignant comments on the complexity of human grief and transcendence. I will only say I am grateful when I arrive at some new conclusion which transmutes (transports?) my grief into a dimension of human understanding I hadn’t fathomed before. My reading your post tonight has reminded me I am not—despite my weary voice—alone in a wilderness of unknowingness.

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