Hi Sharon! I like to save poems that I see here and there in "Notes" on my phone, and one that connects nicely to Greg's essay is a work I was introduced to via Maria Popover's
"The Marginalia". It's called "HAVING IT OUT WITH MELANCHOLY" by Jane Kenyon:
I must tell you, Jeffrey, that I followed your link. I know all about melancholy. Prozac saved my life. The movie Melancholy is one of the darkest, most haunting films I've ever watched...a big mistake for me. When I got my dreadful diagnosis last September, all I could do was listen to opera while I played Sudoku 24/7. Strangely, the combination made me oddly cheerful, as many friends and a therapist can attest. Chemo went smoothly. At the end of it, the oncologist pronounced me "cured." I'm no sucker for happy horseshit, so I didn't really buy that. But bottom line is it was good news. My weird brain does not know how to handle good news, and I've been depressed since. Your link led me to another post on that forum. It was about Oliver Sachs (one of my heroes) who was badly injured running from a bull while climbing a fjord in Norway. He survived a grueling mountainside descent with an umbrella splint on his broken leg and then a long recovery in a Norwegian hospital. A friend gave him a Rachmaninoff tape, which got him through the ordeal. This reminded me of my initial DIY therapy listening to opera and doing Soduku. I've been listening to Rachmaninoff now for two days, and it's a flipping miracle! The depression is lifting. I might as well live, dad-gum-it.
Please direct me to the place where I can "replenish my dried-up reservoir of hope."
If you like poetry or even think you might like it, check out Greg's previous recommendation Poet's Choice, by Edward Hirsch.
Hi Sharon! I like to save poems that I see here and there in "Notes" on my phone, and one that connects nicely to Greg's essay is a work I was introduced to via Maria Popover's
"The Marginalia". It's called "HAVING IT OUT WITH MELANCHOLY" by Jane Kenyon:
https://www.themarginalian.org/2017/09/27/having-it-out-with-melancholy-jane-kenyon-amanda-palmer/
How sweet you are Jeffrey. I shall follow your suggestion. Thanks.
I must tell you, Jeffrey, that I followed your link. I know all about melancholy. Prozac saved my life. The movie Melancholy is one of the darkest, most haunting films I've ever watched...a big mistake for me. When I got my dreadful diagnosis last September, all I could do was listen to opera while I played Sudoku 24/7. Strangely, the combination made me oddly cheerful, as many friends and a therapist can attest. Chemo went smoothly. At the end of it, the oncologist pronounced me "cured." I'm no sucker for happy horseshit, so I didn't really buy that. But bottom line is it was good news. My weird brain does not know how to handle good news, and I've been depressed since. Your link led me to another post on that forum. It was about Oliver Sachs (one of my heroes) who was badly injured running from a bull while climbing a fjord in Norway. He survived a grueling mountainside descent with an umbrella splint on his broken leg and then a long recovery in a Norwegian hospital. A friend gave him a Rachmaninoff tape, which got him through the ordeal. This reminded me of my initial DIY therapy listening to opera and doing Soduku. I've been listening to Rachmaninoff now for two days, and it's a flipping miracle! The depression is lifting. I might as well live, dad-gum-it.