Halsted M. Bernard

Years ago, dur­ing a period of griev­ing, I sent this excerpt from Mary Oliver’s poem “In Black­wa­ter Woods” to my father:

To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mor­tal;
to hold it

against your bones know­ing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

Another period of griev­ing is upon us. When I read Mary Oliver’s words, my heart is momen­tar­ily lighter.