Hello, Mortals!
Today’s post is a reworking of something I originally posted back on July 22, 2022. Make sure to read until the end for this week’s poetry prompt.
leave the dead to sleep
mercy is for the living
walk while the sun shines
We Sing the Sads Songs All the Way Through
I have a project that I occasionally work on that is exploring the tension between grief and hope. I don’t know that the full project will ever see the light of day because my work on it is so plodding, and it feels too raw still, even after four years.
I took my three older kids (I now have three teenagers!) to see Hadestown recently.
Hadestown is a musical based on the ancient Greek tragedy Orpheus and Eurydice. I’ve seen a lot of shows, but Hadestown is one of the best pieces of art of any kind that I’ve ever seen1. I was already in love with the music before seeing the show in Portland, but I can’t stop thinking about what we saw.
And it relates perfectly to the tension between grief and hope.
It may seem strange that seeing a musical where the main characters fail because of a combination of their choices and circumstances far beyond their control could make you feel more hope for the world, but it does.
One of the show’s themes is that we must sing sad songs all the way through, even though we already know how they will end. We do this because we are human. The catharsis and pathos you go through watching and listening to tragic works like this give you the strength to keep battling.
We need all kinds of art in our troubled world. Silly and happy stories help lift our spirits and distract us. But sad stories are needed too. These help us remember that we are human and that suffering is a part of our existence. These tragic tales elevate us—they increase our empathy and reconnect us to our humanity.
One of my favorite explorations of the importance of allowing ourselves to feel sadness is the Pixar film, Inside Out.
We are so fortunate to live in a time where we have such incredible access to art and the unparalleled ability to share our own art.
Haiku Prompt
Write a haiku or series of haiku about grief. Feel free to use the traditional 5-7-5 format or a free verse format. Remember, even the greatest haiku masters often cheated on the syllable count. Please feel to share your poems in the comments.
Here are five more of my grief haiku for some additional inspiration:
we die a thousand
painful, ugly deaths before
our lungs stop breathing
modern cover of
Islands in the Stream wrecks me
Mom loved that damn song
death is the abyss
unfinished business with you
pulls me to the edge
baseball doesn't have
same intensity of joy
only nostalgia
your name on my lips
as I stumble into prayer
releasing my hold
Be the poetry you want to see in the world!
Cheers,
Jason
Note that you asked, but my top three favorite Broadway musicals that I’ve seen live are:
Hamilton
Hadestown
Wicked
Looking at the list, I see that I have. a thing for adaptations. Each of these musicals does a clever job of balancing drawing from the source material without being too reverential of it. This will probably be its own post somewhere down the line.
crows cawing nearby
as I walk the path back home
Mama is dying
i see my father
in his blinding afterlife
through a glass brightly