Who I am.

I write about the landscape of grief, nature, and the wisdom of fools. The author of four books, my essays, poems, and reviews have been published in over 50 journals, including in the Huffington Post and Colorado Review. I’ve won the River Teeth Nonfiction Book Award, the Chautauqua and Literal Latte’s essay prizes, and my work has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes and named a notable by Best American Essays. My account of hiking in Yosemite to deal with my wife’s death, Mountains of Light, was published by the University of Nebraska Press. http://www.markliebenow.com.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Garlic Grits

In a passage in her book American Pie, Michael Lee West says, “Some people don’t know grief from garlic grits.” This puts me in a dilemma. I know what she means, but I like grits.

She means that people who have never experienced grief don’t know how it looks and feels, or how overwhelming it is. Many people don’t know the chaos that the death of someone close creates. A lot of people don’t know what grits look like. You do not mistake grief, or grits, for anything else.

* If you would like to read the rest of this post, let me know and I’ll send it to you. *


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2 comments:

  1. Thank you, Mark. After we've once experienced a major loss, it seems that grief is everywhere. A friend's wife dies or a child is diagnosed with cancer or someone my age begins to lose their memory. It astounds me that, after a few years, I was able to put my dad's death out of my mind when living in a house where thoughts and memories of him were banished. But they were waiting in the great unconscious sea for the next big loss. Then I had the chance to grieve for my dad all over again. I won't forget.

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  2. I've had one big loss, Elaine, and I think I've grieved it fully, but I wonder what will happen when one of my parents dies.

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