GRIEVEYARD

An Offering to My Demons. ~ Safia Radha

Tue, 29 May 2012 14:10:00 -0700

An Offering to My Demons. ~ Safia Radha: A raw and insightful reflection on grief and the...

artist laurent chéhére creates moments where time appears...

Sun, 27 May 2012 12:31:29 -0700

artist laurent chéhére creates moments where time appears suspended and gravity irrelevant. perfect little illustrations of death and grief.

brooklyndeathblog: Roadside memorials mark geographical points...

Fri, 18 May 2012 16:18:44 -0700

brooklyndeathblog:

Roadside memorials mark geographical points of departure in a landscape that is generally devoid of real human interaction or activity. We pass them at sixty miles an hour, sometimes glancing back, but are never afforded the time to actually see them. This project is about slowing down.

—Phillip March Jones discussing his new book, ‘Points of Departure: Roadside Memorial Portraits’

(photo via + more pics: A few questions with Phillip March Jones | Creative Loafing Atlanta)

“… let us deprive death of it’s strangeness,...

Fri, 18 May 2012 16:16:08 -0700

“… let us deprive death of it’s strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it, let us have nothing more often in mind than death. We do not know where death awaits us, so let us wait for it everywhere. To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.”

- Michel de Montaigne

Buddhist roshi, Joan Halifax speaks on compassion and the true...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:52:05 -0700

Buddhist roshi, Joan Halifax speaks on compassion and the true meaning of empathy. This TED video is worth every second of your time. Ten years ago I spent a week studying with Joan at her monastery for her Being With Dying training, a contemplative and powerful program for end-of-life care. Perhaps one of the most valuable weeks anyone working in palliative care could give themselves. Or anyone who will become intimate with death in their lives. Which, ehem… is all of us.

This incredibly poignant and articulate article is taken from Daily Undertaker...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:10:40 -0700

This incredibly poignant and articulate article is taken from Daily Undertaker...

"The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet,..."

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:55:34 -0700

“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And...

Fake Flowers: Unexpected Beauty from Artist, Asher

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:20:26 -0700

Fake flowers find the height of their beauty after withering away for years in graveyards.

crashinglybeautiful: Gregory Corso: “Spirit” Spirit is Life It...

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:09:20 -0700

crashinglybeautiful:

Gregory Corso: “Spirit”

Spirit
is Life
It flows thru
the death of me
endlessly
like a river
unafraid
of becoming
the sea

[Gregory Corso, Boulder Colorado, 1974. Photo - Rachel Homer]

Thank you, lumpy-pudding.

Photo

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:06:33 -0700

Katy Hardy-Ward lost her mother when she was 13. Her tremendous...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:04:15 -0700

Katy Hardy-Ward lost her mother when she was 13. Her tremendous wisdom and sincerity about her grief has opened a path and passion for her to learn more about death and dying and helping others across the world deal with loss. She sent me some imagery for Grieveyard a while ago, including one of her own paintings Osiris, Egyptian God of the Underworld.

She wrote:

“I grew up loving and admiring the great woman my mother was. When she died, I was 13. I was devastated. I no longer had anyone to talk to, no one who understood me so well. My grief was very strong, for I dropped out of school, and for about 3 years, I felt like dying. Like giving up. But I knew that was not what I wanted and certainly not what my mom would have wanted. So, very slowly, it seemed, I pulled myself out of the mire of my grief, and went on with my life. I got my GED when I was 16 in 1 term, and now I am in school for Shamanism, which plays a large part in death in many cultures across the world, such as crossing the desceased, and helping grieving people deal with their sadness and sense of loss in a healthy manner, and much, much more. My goal in life is to travel the world, learn all I can about Shamanism, and live in a cob house community village and to be happy and healthy. In my opinion, death is not about destruction and gloom and giving up, at least not anymore. Now, it is about learning things about yourself, learning to overcome huge obstacles, and especially it is about new beginnings. Another chance at life, a fresh start.”

Images: Hella- Norse Goddess of the Underworld, Anubis - Egyptian God of the Dead, Osiris - Egyptian God of the Underworld

Charles Bukowski’s last poem (faxed to his publisher). “On...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:51:07 -0700

Charles Bukowski’s last poem (faxed to his publisher).

“On February 18, 1994 Hank had a fax machine installed at his home. He sent me his first fax message in the form of that poem. I’m sure he visualized sending me his future letters and poems via fax, but sadly 18 days later he was gone.

“I ran off nine photocopies of the fax, for a total of ten, and numbered and initialed them. Over the next few months and years I gave copies to individuals who were Bukowski collectors and regular customers of Black Sparrow. I think I gave away the last one more than 10 years ago.

“That poem has never been published (except as described here) and the poem has never been collected in a book.” — John Martin (his publisher at Black Sparrow Press)

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 06:26:35 -0700

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,

If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,

But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,

And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,

Missing me one place search another,

I stop somewhere waiting for you.

- Walt Whitman

Not necessarily about the grief that follows death, but this...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 09:10:50 -0700

Not necessarily about the grief that follows death, but this short animated film by Natalie Bettelheim and Sharon Michaeli wrapped my heart around the confusion, fear and the ultimate wisdom that is born from facing our pain dead on. Simply stunning.

reginasworld: It was the death of Motoi Yamamoto‘s sister that...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:53:18 -0700

reginasworld:

It was the death of Motoi Yamamoto‘s sister that led to his career in salt installations. Motoi had worked in a dockyard for much of his 22 years. But after his sister’s untimely passing at the age of 24 due to brain cancer, he began thinking about what he had and lost, and prolifically producing art work much like a diary.

Photo

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:31:44 -0700

BLOOM - a memorial for the inanimate “In 2003 a building...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:03:26 -0700

BLOOM - a memorial for the inanimate

“In 2003 a building housing the Massachusetts Mental Health Center (MMHC) was slated for demolition to make way for updated facilities. The closure was a time for reflection and remembrance as the MMHC had been in operation for over 9 decades and had touched countless thousands of patients and employees alike, and the pending demolition presented a unique problem. How does one memorialize a building impossibly rich with a history of both hope and sadness, and do it in a way that reflects not only the past but also the future? And could this memorial be open to the public, not as a speech, or series of informational plaques, but as an experience worthy of they building’s unique story?

To answer that question artist Anna Schuleit was commissioned to do the impossible. After an initial tour of the facility she was struck not with what she saw but with what she didn’t see: the presence of life and color. While historically a place of healing, the drab interior, worn hallways, and dull paint needed a respectful infusion of hope. With a limited budget and only three months of planning Schuleit and an enormous team of volunteers executed a massive public art installation called Bloom. The concept was simple but absolutely immense in scale. Nearly 28,000 potted flowers would fill almost every square foot of the MMHC including corridors, stairwells, offices and even a swimming pool, all of it brought to life with a sea of blooms. The public was then invited for a limited 4 day viewing as a time for needed reflection and rebirth.” - via thisiscolossal.com

“someone has to die in order that the rest of us should...

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:59:23 -0700

“someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.” - Virginia Woolf from The Hours

-photo by Aëla Labbé

james wright poem--"back to my skull, that is our face"

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 11:18:38 -0800

So She Said “I’d rather not. I’m confused.” I did not plow her darkenesses, Only because I’d rather...

and why should burying my father’s father feel more like...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:40:00 -0800

and why should burying my father’s father

feel more like digging up a grave

than putting someone in it?

i thought we dropped that shovel

18 years ago, half of my blood

my father’s frozen fist

under a cold midwestern snow.

dad used to say the size of the fist

is equal to the size of the heart,

and from ear to stethoscope to breastbone

we hear lub dub.

(he preferred luv dub.)

so caught in a tangle of emotion

i held that shovel yesterday

a child again

hoping

that digging a grave for my grandfather

aside the now frozen ash of my father

would find me palms down

amongst earthworms, springtime and bulbs

piercing into frozen fists and bleeding them back to life.

pulsing that half of my blood from black

to red, luv dub.

but i’m not that child

and the shovel is too heavy.

and springtime is in my fists now

not theirs.