HOME • ASSISTED PUBLISHING • JOIN MAILING LIST
In these poems, Diane Mintz struggles to restore herself to life after the death of her son. Grief is the other side of love and no amount of will can forestall its cascade of exquisite pain. Through the process of writing these poems, allowing grief to take its toll, slowly she begins to feel the pulse of life again.
_________________
From Ode to Life
I stay alive for the children — the newborns,
the adolescents, the teenagers, the lost and the
searching, the groping and the yearning — who will
inherit our gorgeous and broken world. I wish them
luck and forbearance.
I stay alive to honor you my dear son. You who loved
so deeply. I am keeping your love for life alive.
May your memory live on.
Published by author Diane Mintz in association with Fearless Literary
72 pages, trade paperback • $8.95 print / $5.95 digital • ISBN 979-8-234-04322-1
___________________________________________________
DIANE MINTZ was born in Newark, New Jersey where she lived until her family moved to California when she was 9. With the exception of graduate school and travel, she has spent her adult life in Berkeley where she got her B.A. from UC Berkeley and raised her two sons. She has worked as a teacher, an editor, a translator, a secretary, a newspaper reporter and a realtor (while founding a nonprofit, YESfamilies.org), all while stashing her writings in drawers. This is her second volume of poetry, following About Time (2023).
____________________________________________________
RememberingOne hears “he is dead and buried”,
said glibly and with finality.
But until we ourselves are gone,
our dead are attached by memories
connecting past and present.
In opening to grief’s ebb and flow,
we can begin to forgive, to penetrate
the past and to savor what was nourishing.
Remembering is the vessel holding
sadness and grief, preventing them
from rushing free like gutter water
to the sewer, confusing the present
with the ashes of the past.
Memory keeps the connection alive,
living proof of having lived and loved.
Was he grumpy and slow to wake
or ready in the morning with a warm smile?
Was he ticklish and playful with kids
or was he stiff and shy hugging his corner?
Remembering is soul food even when
it is shrouded in exquisite pain.
The Sweet Spot
There is a sweet spot between wanting and having.
If we sink into this moment, desire hides behind
closed doors, without demanding more. Then,
we are free to offer ourselves to life as it is.
Soon, though, desire is aroused and we are
again caught between wanting and having, now
with an awareness of the impermanence of desire
as well as our own fragility. Perhaps longing comes
from living on the outskirts of life, of losing the way
back to our center, to this moment. For most of life,
the seduction of more and better keeps us off-balance.
It is only when we reach the age when death lurks
around the next corner — closer than ever —
do we stop to consider wasted time. But it is not
regret which will restore the time lost: It is only by
welcoming the sweetness still to be savored.
Latter Days
At last yearning ends.
Acceptance beats in its new,
soft heart and clears the
way to moments of pure joy.
It is a revelation coming
so late in life. Sweeter
now for the years of self-
inflicted struggles, hurt
and tangled thoughts
now quieted and replaced
by nothing noteworthy,
only the peace of knowing,
of feeling the pull of small
necessities: to trim the hedge,
to boil the potatoes, to walk the dog,
and to end each day at your side.
