Conversations with Grief, by Jordan Bomse

Poetry, chapbook, 16 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Grief is the act of love we give to someone who died. Grief isn’t linear, nor will it ever be, two things I’ve known the majority of life. I’ve experienced far more grief than most in my life. More than most I’ve met. I moved through grief differently after a while. Using it to help myself and others as well. I hadn’t been so sure of anything for a while. People were dropping like flies. I’d not been able to grieve one person before losing someone else. It had taken a toll on me.

The sad song that’s been my life has been losing several people every year the majority of my life, the cause of death different for each one. A few to cancer, a few to old age, my mother and sister to the same genetic disorder, and various things in between. The grief I’ve had has been unbearable at times. I remind myself they’re still with me. In some way. I may no longer be able to see them, though they’re still with me. I’d wallowed in my grief for a while. A requiem, a mass for the dead, helped me. I mourned the ones I’d lost. A new day dawned. One where I was able to live with the grief. Grief is love we can no longer give to the ones we’ve lost, grief that can be used to honor their lives in some way.

Jordan has lost far too many people in their life. Far more than most. It was the grief they carried that became a burden. A burden that had become too much to bear. They began sharing their story over time. A way to help themselves heal. A way to help others heal in some way as well. There is community in grieving, their hope being to show others who’ve lost someone, or numerous people, that they’re not alone in their grief. There are people that will lend a helping hand, a shoulder to cry on, and a listening ear.

Jordan has written about their grief in hopes to share a different perspective. That the requiem that was held for their loved ones helped them heal in ways they’d not realized. A requiem that has helped them begin living their life knowing their loved ones never left. They’re just living within Jordan’s life a little differently.