Judith Block

David a Love Song Judith Block First edition

This book began as my therapy after the tragic loss of my son. The words are exactly as they poured from my heart, sometimes so quickly I could not keep up and get them down on paper, and sometimes, with great effort to use exactly the right word or words, to express the emotion I was feeling. The work is actually in two sections, the first of which is more of a prose form, the second is a more traditional poetic form. That is just the way my thoughts seemed to express themselves at the time. Perhaps, the larger, the more global thoughts came in the beginning when the whole event was harder to grasp, and as time went on, my thoughts coalesced into a more concise format as I was able to perceive the subtleties of what I was processing. Whether or not a purist would judge this work as "poetry" in the true literary sense, is not critical to me. What is important is that the reader is able to follow my journey from despair to acceptance. That the reader sees grief not as a straight line, but as a progression of steps, a few forward, a few back, and then forward again. With each of these forward steps being hard won, but lasting once they have been achieved. It is also my hope that the reader will be able to integrate his or her own experience into something that is acceptable to his or her own mind and find the peace that acceptance will bring. Acceptance is not closure. There will always be something or someone that will bring back the pain of any tragedy, but, as time goes on it becomes easier, and, in the end life can be fulfilling and happy, if somewhat bittersweet. Lastly, by accepting loss and moving forward, there is the possibility of helping someone else who is where you once were, thus making something good our of something bad.