Life, Death and Poetry

"The many different angles of grief that hadn't occurred to me until my own father. It hadn't occurred to me that there was more than one thing to miss. And it's not always good stuff that you miss." Poet, Ali Whitelock, and I talk about the unexpected death of her father, a man with whom she had a difficult relationship.  The experience of accompanying him, holding his hand while he died, brought home to her the reality that one day, she too, would die. The terror that life was passing her by compelled Ali to leave her job and enter the life she had always wanted - that of full-time writer.  We talk about the meaning of her work, holding something in the palm of your hand and writing a poem about it. "The role of writers and poets is to perhaps pare back life and look at it and try to make some kind of meaning to it."