Susan Landgraf
Grief: a noun and a verb
The pyre is built, the body laid upon it.
Silence and shadow fill up the gulf
between here and the hereafter.
What is a frame but a "keeping in"
and a "keeping out." Faith
sounds like a hollow gourd.
Disbelief shares a corner
with doubt. Grief is a solitary task
breathing heavy at night.
There is no knowing
what the smoke means –
except what it means.
Bio
Susan Landgraf was awarded a $50,000 Poets Laureate grant from the Academy of American Poets in 2020. Two Sylvias Press published The Inspired Poet, a writing exercise book, in 2019. More than 400 poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Margie, Nimrod, and others. Books include What We Bury Changes the Ground and Other Voices.