Poem about grief, healing

Kevin Young's "The Art of Losing, Poems of Grief and Healing" (Bloomsbury USA, $24) is an interesting collection of poetry, broken into sections: Reckoning, Regret, Remembrance, Ritual, Recovery and Redemption.

When a loved one has dementia, the stages of grief seem all out of whack. We cannot mourn a physical passing, but the person we so loved is--in many ways--gone. Sure, we see glimpses of the real person in the eyes, in familiar gestures, in quips. While our heart holds them dear, our mind mourns their impending passing. Anyway, maybe that's why I am drawn to a book such as this. One excerpt:


"The Reassurance" by Thom Gunn

About ten days or so
After we saw you dead
You came back in a dream.
I'm all right now you said.

And it was you, although
You were fleshed out again:
You hugged us all round then,
And gave your welcoming beam.

How like you to be kind,
Seeking to reassure.
And, yes, how like my mind
To make itself secure.