grief — blog — Anne Benvenuti

A Poem for Earth Day 2020

Dawn Breaks Over the Bones

There is a wild grief
in me and a sorrow that I
was part of something horrible
that I didn’t see, while I tinkered
hard with the given machinery.

I was focused, looking intently
the other way while it
happened, the decimation,
and the filth stacked up
behind my back, while
sugar plum fairies danced
inside my eyes—and
I sucked their exquisite little
toes in my long opium dream.

human-animal relations, animal familyAnne BenvenutiApril 22, 2020poetry, Earth Day, Earth Day 2020, grief, green shoots, four-footed friends, disease, a wild griefComment

Grief

Grief. This fundamental affect is not easy to name, but you know it when you're in it. Bereft might be the best word to describe it, the sudden panic that drops into a well of sadness, even despair, and it's caused by the loss of an important attachment. The reason why being shunned (as in solitary confinement or the "scarlet letter") is considered the most severe punishment is that this kind of separation pain is a pain like no other. It's the emotional pain that really can kill you.

So let me insert the good news here.

animal family, animal studies, anthrozoology, critical thinking, human-animal relationsAnne BenvenutiOctober 18, 2017grief, animal nature, animal sentience, animal family, animals and grief, Jaak Panksepp, Jane Goodall, attachment, oxytocinComment