My new book Dear Brother is in the world as of Tuesday! Click here for more info and/or to register for its launch party.
Maybe you, like me, talk to the people you love who aren’t on the planet anymore. Maybe you look up and oh, there she is, coming toward you at the end of the block, waving…but wait, no, it’s just someone who looks like her. Maybe you see a cardinal, or an eagle, or a small red fox, and that’s the sign you and your loved one agreed upon, so you know they’re still with you.
And maybe you’re also like me in that sometimes a sign isn’t enough. Sometimes you just want them right back there in the room with you, nodding off in the big chair, or telling you a story, because you need their presence, their courage, their steady-as-a-rock-ness.
The Courage That My Mother Had, by Edna St. Vincent Millay
The courage that my mother had
Went with her, and is with her still:
Rock from New England quarried;
Now granite in a granite hill.
The golden brooch my mother wore
She left behind for me to wear;
I have no thing I treasure more:
Yet, it is something I could spare.
Oh, if instead she’d left to me
The thing she took into the grave!—
That courage like a rock, which she
Has no more need of, and I have.
Click here for more information about Edna St. Vincent Millay.
My podcast: Words by Winter
Alison McGhee 
She has always been one of my favourites. It’s metered poetry like hers that I want to write. I think I’ll get on with it
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Get on with it, my friend! I’m cheering you from the sidelines.
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This is so lovely, Alison. Thank you for posting it ( as well as the picture!) I’m sure I read Edna St. Vincent Millay in college-or maybe even high school-but I really don’t think I fully appreciated her at that age. I’m 53 now so I guess it’s time to revisit all the writers I didn’t quite “get” when I was younger. And I agree about the signs, especially in the form of animals. A few years back my dad’s second wife had been seeing hummingbirds shortly after he died and when I told her about the spiritual significance of these little birds I think she was comforted.
Congratulations on your new book and have fun at the launch party! Wish I lived closer!
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