Grief's Dignity: An eschatological approach to the poetry of Mairtin O Direain, Sean O'Riordain and Maire Mhac an tSaoi (original) (raw)

Why we need more poetry in palliative care

BMJ supportive & palliative care, 2018

Although many well-known poems consider illness, loss and bereavement, medicine tends to view poetry more as an extracurricular than as a mainstream pursuit. Within palliative care, however, there has been a long-standing interest in how poetry may help patients and health professionals find meaning, solace and enjoyment. The objective of this paper is to identify the different ways in which poetry has been used in palliative care and reflect on their further potential for education, practice and research. A narrative review approach was used, drawing on searches of the academic literature through Medline and on professional, policy and poetry websites to identify themes for using poetry in palliative care. I identified four themes for using poetry in palliative care. These concerned (1) leadership, (2) developing organisational culture, (3) the training of health professionals and (4) the support of people with serious illness or nearing the end of life. The academic literature was...

Loss and Mourning: Writings on Death and its Appeal to the Reader 1

2020

Abstract. How do writers deal with loss and mourning? Which response do they hope to evoke from their readers? In the absence of any mourners, Scott Fitzgerald himself takes up the role of prime mourner in The Great Gatsby. Proust prefers to immerse the reader in countless memories of his grandmother's death. Thus he and the reader arrive at the idea of his own imminent death. Joyce emphasizes that death really is the appropriate response to life here and now, however happy it might seem. Finally, in my own 'death novel' I endeavour to detach the reader from the experience of loss and mourning. Instead, by using the first person singular narrator, the reader is made to see and experience the beauty of death. As the body of the boy is slowly hauled from the frozen lake, the onlookers drop to their knees one by one. They cross themselves and pray for the eternal life of the soul of this young boy. The last person to kneel and cross himself is the boy's father. He i...

Loss and Mourning: Writings on Death and its Appeal to the Reader

2006

How do writers deal with loss and mourning? Which response do they hope to evoke from their readers? In the absence of any mourners, Scott Fitzgerald himself takes up the role of prime mourner in The Great Gatsby. Proust prefers to immerse the reader in countless memories of his grandmother’s death. Thus he and the reader arrive at the idea of his own imminent death. Joyce emphasizes that death really is the appropriate response to life here and now, however happy it might seem. Finally, in my own ‘death novel’ I endeavour to detach the reader from the experience of loss and mourning. Instead, by using the first person singular narrator, the reader is made to see and experience the beauty of death. As the body of the boy is slowly hauled from the frozen lake, the onlookers drop to their knees one by one. They cross themselves and pray for the eternal life of the soul of this young boy. The last person to kneel and cross himself is the boy’s father. He is a self-acknowledged atheist,...

The Sense of an Ending: Poetry and Death

It is possible the origins of religious ways of thinking are to be found in the effortsd of humankind to avoid, or at least to cope with, death. This essay simply aligns a few major poems of the English literary tradition according to their attitude toward death.

When we die: extraordinary experiences at life’s end, by Kenneth L. Doka, Minnesota, USA, Llewellyn Publication Worldwide, 2020, 202 pp., €17.87 (Paperback), ISBN 0738762938 - Book Review

Mortality, 2023

Kenneth Doka's two seminal contributions to Death Studies and loss include the term Disenfranchised Grief, which initiated many studies on Transparent Bereavement, as well as raising extensive clinical attention to the phenomenon; and his book (with Terry Martin) 'Men Don't Cry, Women Do' on gender-based differences in the processing of loss, and specifically men's difficulty to express distress and be assisted by social networks during times of grief. By way of generalisation, I argue that Doka is a pioneer in what can be referred to as the study of 'Grief Regime'. Even more than that, and without him having meant to do so or maybe even been aware of it, he is also the leading contributor to the study of the 'Sociology of Grief'. Following his contributions hundreds of studies were initiated on topics involving the impact of social discourse on the ability to grieve. At the centre of Doka's new book, we find not the grievers, nor society or discourse, but the dying person. Here we see a clear transition from focusing on grief, to focusing on the 'phenomenology of the dying'. The dying person is the main character of the book, dictating its themes, its chapters and even its scientific concepts. Had Thomas Kuhn, the Sociologist of Science, who discussed how scientific paradigms are formed and how they closely and even violently protect their borders to prevent 'subversive' texts from penetrating scientific fields been alive today, he would undoubtedly have been intrigued to follow the book's reception in hegemonic scientific community, maybe even writing its preface. Each chapter of Doka's book 'captures' a delineated theme consistently recurring in the incredible life journey that Kenneth Doka has undergone. Into each theme he has deduced the most relevant moments, conversations and interactions that best correspond and illustrate it, showing how each theme exists in and characterises the dying person. Thus showing himself in a unique and exclusive matter (through conversations he held with those he accompanied, exceptional requests, memories that left their mark), while on the other hand, presenting themes that can be used to identify those who are in an 'End of life condition', having what can be identified as an 'End of life conversation'. This type of discourse is characterised by the persistent questions, passions, emotions and longings of this unique and emotional point in life. These themes, that have become the chapters of the book, were developed through unique interactions held by a unique researcher, who has dedicated his life to 'End of life interactions' with special people who have found in him the perfect partner to whom to expose their deepest emotions during this unique time. It should be said: as theoretical constructs, these chapters may have been perceived as quasi-legitimate in some academic circles, had they been included in a book on loss which is based on anything other than an ethnographic journey. But of course, Doka did not choose to include theoretical chapters in a deductive-scientific book about loss. The chapters were essentially dictated to him by his patients, following an inductive process. Those same chapters and themes are the organising and consistent categories which summarise the topics of conversation, the deliberations, thoughts and associations raised by his partners in dialogue, as they approached the end of their lives. They are an organisation of the empirics which the MORTALITY

Coming to Terms with Death - Final Paper - Lauren Yarnell

2019

Coming to Terms with Death We will die one day, sooner or later. Traditionally, we approach death from a stoic perspective (Gawande, 2014, p.170). Dead bodies are covered up and quickly whisked away as if there is a shameful connotation affiliated with viewing them. The bereaved, who hide their grief to the point that no one would guess anything had happened, receive social praise. Philippe Ariès delivered a series of lectures at Johns Hopkins in 1973. He pointed out that at the start of the 1930s, there had been a cultural shift regarding how Western societies viewed death. "Death," he wrote, "would become shameful and forbidden." (Didion, 2006, p.45) We can attribute this dismissal of grieving in public based on contemporary trends. This epicurean philosophy dictates

Cures for the heart: a poetic approach to healing after loss

British Journal of Guidance & Counselling

Writing creatively, expressively, and reflectively to aid the grieving process is founded on the idea that in order to survive and thrive after loss, personal meaning must be made of what has been suffered. The individualisation and secularisation of society has put the onus of meaning making on the individual while an abiding reservation about speaking openly about death in Western culture complicates this task. In this article we examine how metaphors are used to make sense of loss and its ensuing emotions and how they help the writer move from a 'first' (i.e. anguish, pain) to a 'second' story (i.e. healing). We argue also that evoking the beloved through writing is part of healthy grieving. We conclude that nudging, thread and crystalising metaphors as well as 'poetic conversations'that help locate and position oneself in relation to the losstogether make constructing new life-giving (i.e. second) stories possible. The safety and privacy of writing is also key in making space for the voice of the bereaved. We note that grieving individuals 'write about' and 'write to' and thus evoke the person who has died. In this paradoxical way the bereaved face the reality of death by retaining the loved one.

Writing death: a personal essay

TEXT

is currently undertaking a research higher degree examining sequel memoir at Central Queensland University. Growing up as the daughter of a minister of religion, she saw death from a spiritual perspective. Her career as a nurse led to her seeing death and dying from yet another angle and, as a writer, she is compelled to write about these deaths. She has had work published in an anthology, Eavesdropping (2012), and in Idiom23 literary magazine (2013, 2014). She has completed a memoir, 'Nightmare in Paradise' (2013) and is currently writing a sequel to this.