Sing to Me and I Will Hear You: The Poems

By Elaine G. McGillicuddy

Sing to Me and I Will Hear You – The Poems

Nine months after Francis’ death in January, 2010, Elaine was given a gift of two books of poetry by Donald Hall. In The Painted Bed and Without, he was lamenting the death of his wife. With this model of a grief-stricken poet to hearten her, poems of her own started to come.

She cried out in the first of these, “At Last” – “I could not bear the void . . .” During Francis’ last one hundred days, Elaine had written “Dear Family and Friends” letters which were posted on www.elaineandfrancis.blogspot.com Some of the poems in her first book, Sing to Me and I Will Hear You – The Poems, published in 2012, were sparked by Elaine’s memories during Francis’ last one hundred days, many of them recorded in these journal letters.

But the poems express as well, Elaine’s own experiences during the two years following Francis’ death. Many of the poems originated in prayer, or, as Elaine prefers to call it, her “sitting practice.” They offer a glimpse into the progression of her journey through grief.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781939389381

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Elaine G. McGillicuddy

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, me- chanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the

written permission of the publisher.

Cover by Kelli Stohlmeyer, [e-mail]

Cover photo by Jan Born.

Elaine G. McGillicuddy

Sing to Me and I Will Hear You

Printed in the United States of America.

ISBN 978-0-9668228-8-5

Caritas Communications

216 North Green Bay Road, Suite 208

Thiensville,Wisconsin 53092

[e-mail]

414.531.0503

Lovers, you who are for a while

sufficient to each other,

help me understand who we are.

Can we believe we endure?

You, however, who increase

through each other's delight,

you who ripen in each other's hands

like grapes in a vintage year:

I'm asking you

who we are.

You touch one another so reverently;

as though your caresses

could keep each place they cover

from disappearing.

As though, underneath, you could sense

that which will always exist.

So, as you embrace, you promise each other eternity.

From the Second Duino Elegy

Translated by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

Acknowledgements

I offer my deepest gratitude to the following: David Gawlik, my publisher - a photographer extraordinaire and longtime editor of CORPUSREPORTS, who upheld my earliest expressed wish to write Francis' and my story, yet cheered me on when it was poetry that came to me first, unexpectedly.Bill Gregory, a retired United Church of Christ minister whom Francis chose to help him with the transitionand who has given me trusted guidance and support since Francis' death. He and his wife Nancy encouraged me as a poet, before I dared apply the word to my-self.April Ossmann, poetry editor, from whom I sought a professional assessment after reading her article in Poets & Writers. Valuing the talent I hardly knew I had,