Valley of Life | Online Memorial Blog

Dickinson writes with timeless insight in her poem, “All But Death Can Be Adjusted”, below. Though only two stanzas in length, she poetically captures the unpredictability of life and the finality of death. Dickinson concludes her poem emphatically with her perspective on death — essentially, once you’re gone, you’re gone – but I think it’s her view of life that is most poignant. Basically, Dickinson tells us that life goes on, and there is power to change, to heal, and to exceed. Similarly, we must also navigate life’s unfortunate realities of stagnation, pain, and failure. (more…)

The following poem is one that has made an impression on popular culture since it was penned in 1624. The author, John Donne, originally wrote it as a work of prose in his “Devotions upon Emergent Occasions,” but it was later formatted into lines of poetry, as seen below. Since then, the work has been alluded to by Hemingway, who wrote a novel of the same title in 1940. Later, Hemingway’s book was adapted for film. Additionally, the BeeGees and Metallica, among others, each wrote and performed songs of the same title. Clearly, as its numerous allusions and popular references can attest, this poem speaks powerfully to its reader, mysteriously characterizing death as an occasion to be saddened but revered, expected and not feared. (more…)

The notion that death is not the end is developed in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s matter-of-fact poem “All Return Again” about the continuance of life beyond what we call death.  Hope and believe that there is more and you will surely see your lost loved one in the people around you. (more…)