The Rules of Engaging Grief

I just returned from Sedona, AZ. While there, I visited the site where our family gathered to scatter the ashes of my spouse five years ago.  Here is the poem I wrote to commemorate this occasion.

“New Beginnings”

Alone he walks a path –
Dusty red rock
Through Juniper pine
Winding upward for a mile,

Blast furnace heat envelops
As he ascends further
White rose tipped-red in hand
Where Kachina Woman* waits

In supplication and prayer,
Standing upon burnt shale,
A carpet of tears it seems;
He sits in her shadow

Recalls years ago
When he let loose in sadness
Love’s ashes to the breeze
To honor life’s transition.

Now upon a gnarled mesquite
Clinging tenaciously
To the barren surface
Patient for the rain,

He releases rose petals
With care – deliberately
In reflection of life –
A  love now passed.

After a time he rises
Retraces his steps
Returns to where it began –
A place of new beginnings.

  
*A red rock spire so named near Boynton Canyon outside of Sedona, AZ