The Mystery of Grief: Writing into the Loss
The Mystery of Grief: Writing into the Loss
This keynote address will take place in Jacksonville, Florida, during the 2024 Restorative Chaplaincy Conference.
When we lose loved ones, writing can be a powerful tool for helping us remember them, helping us re-encounter the world without them, and helping us re-know ourselves as the loss transforms us. Together we’ll read poems about grief and talk about them, we’ll have chances to do our own writing, there will be optional time for sharing what we wrote, and we will have time to reflect on the effect writing has on us. The poems we read and write won’t be able to hold all the feelings, but they will offer us a way to connect with the lives and deaths of our loved ones, to express our anguish and love, and to explore the landscape of our hearts. Participants will leave with several simple phrases to use when first meeting a blank page, ideas for how to soften their inner critic, a bouquet of writing prompts they can use themselves or share based on poems in All the Honey (which they will receive at registration), and perhaps with a poem of their own.
This session will begin at 9 a.m. Eastern.
For more information, click the event link, or email Carmen Emerson: Carmen.Emerson@bmcjax.com