Wolf River

Poet’s Note

What drew me to this poem was the two conflicting desires: one, "I want to believe you suffer no more", and two "I want a sign you still exist". The former can only come from the rational finality of death, and the latter can only come from the irrational leap of belief. The latter is certainly more "beautiful”, but the former is easier to accept and move forward from. We just get tempted towards the beautiful rather than the real. To me, the 'problem' is that temptation - and recognizing that as a 'problem' implies a choice in the speaker to ultimately deal with their loss in the rational way.