Novena to Loss crosses the Pacific…

Before John died, and during COVID lockdown, my son Scott (who was experiencing lockdown with his family in Shanghai) and I were communicating via FaceTime and email. We read to each from spiritual books once a week, e.g. Tish Harrison-Warren’s “Prayer in the Night” was one favorite and almost daily exchanged poems we were writing.  He likes a challenge to get him writing and recently completed a local group's assignment to write a poem a day for 100 days! Here’s his most recent and final contribution, called “To New Beginnings":

This marks an end to our communal write.

We laughed, we cried, we saw the light.

You now know more of me than others.

Please handle me with care: sisters, brothers.

My confessions perhaps too candid:

A little too honest, a little too openhanded.

But that is what my heart has needed.

With each poem, a bit of healing seeded.

While we may be saying “the end,”

This really is just a straight road’s bend,

And while no one knows exactly what’s in stead,

Here’s to many beginnings ahead.