17 Sep, 2016

“A Leave Taking;” Mourning Stillbirth

17 Sep, 2016

Hi Robbi,

I want to thank you again for opening your exhibit and yourself to me and my fellow Committee members.  Seeing, hearing and experiencing your heart’s work continues to have a powerful, lingering effect.  Here is the poem I mentioned finding a very long time ago in an article in a women’s magazine written by a woman recounting the stillbirth of her child. It is called  “A Leave Taking,” by Yvor Winters (1900-1968):
I, who never kissed your head,
Lay these ashes in their bed;
That which I could do have done.
Now farewell, my newborn son.

At the time, I had never even been pregnant; yet I found the poem such a haunting expression of sorrow and grief that I memorized it.  Many years later, I reflected on it often as I coped with the miscarriage of my second child just as I was entering the second trimester of pregnancy.  Seeing your work brought back the poem and the strong sense of these same emotions.

I look forward to seeing the trailer when it’s ready.

Kind regards,
Nancy A. Baker
Santa Fe, New Mexico

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