Some Bodies in the Grief Bed

Some Bodies in the Grief Bed is Rick Benjamin’s latest attempt to find the intersection of the human and the non-human in the context of this earth’s ecology. A poem about migrations butterflies and others make might be followed by another appearing in the life of a family; and this poet is always trying to face down the distinction between them. At the same time, he is deeply interested in every detail of either: giraffe’s eating an Acacia’s topmost leaves and pods; the way the sound of percussive roofs in rain bring up memories a boy might have thought he’d buried. These are offered as equal parts of one book, planets orbiting around the same sun. As the title suggests, Some Bodies in the Grief Bed evolves around loss, but also those moments of ecstasy and joy that are attached to them. As Martín suggests, such grief is also and always just another opportunity to praise everything and everyone we’ve been lucky enough to hold and have in this world without keeping. This book reminds us both to hold each moment and to be more mindful of what it’s made (out) of— the organic, impermanent nature of our “passing love” (Langston Hughes) on this planet.