a grief sublime
Beth Robbins
“… this book is a most lyrical, beautiful and profound rumination on grief, poetry, resurrection.”
—maira kalman
A Grief Sublime by Beth Robbins is a work of creative non-fiction that begins with the moment Robbins is informed of her husband’s sudden death in a car accident.The book moves in a fragmented way, from the aftermath of devastation, to Robbins’s childhood near Long Beach, New York to moments in her marriage to Steve “Sproutman” Meyerowitz, to the lived experience of grief. Her navigation of grief becomes a hero’s journey and ultimately leads to rediscovery.
Distinguishing Robbins’s book is her lyrical style which brings readers into the direct and immediate experience of deep tragedy as well as literature. Robbins enters into conversation with Keats and Whitman, Melville and Dickinson, discovering, through these writers, that grief has amplified life’s spectrum, welcoming her into the realm of literature where imagination meets experience in new and profound ways.
“The fragmentation, or, perhaps better said, the shattering of my world led me to look for conversation, reconnection, dialogue,” says Robbins. “My poets, as I began to call them, offered me solace. They spoke to meaning and purpose. Somehow Steve’s death allowed me to (re)discover my strength.”
Written in lyrical and narrative style, this heartbreaking story is ultimately hopeful and transcendent, transforming despair into a new experience of life. And a recognition of the love that remains after death.
PRAISE
“writing can save your life.
poetry can save your life.
and love.
well love can save your life a thousand times.
this book is a most lyrical, beautiful and profound rumination on grief, poetry, resurrection.”
“Luminous, breathtaking, A GRIEF SUBLIME takes us gently by the hand and beckons us to walk beyond the edges of pain into a transcendent world where the dead and living co-exist. Emerson speaks in the forest. Whitman reaches out to us with ink-stained hands. Keats perches in a bedroom, waiting for us to fully wake. Robbins’ haunting. poetic memoir lives seamlessly between realms of awake and asleep, alert and dreaming, life and death, creating an otherworldly space filled with love and hope.”
“A poignant, accessible, beautifully written book that provides a rare glimpse of what it is like to suddenly lose your husband of 30 years in a tragic car crash. And how to not only survive the loss, but grow deeply through the experience.”
I’ve finished reading A Grief Sublime, and I admire it a good deal. A one-of-a-kind book, it’s an amalgamation of a novel, a memoir, a long poem, and a meditation. All of its elements work very well together––e.g., the arrangement of the narrative into lines of poetry—with lots of open space on every page—makes it all the more readable at the same time it enhances the gravitas of subject matter.
—David Huddle, poet
FROM READERS
I just finished the book. It was incredible. I don’t even have the capacity to express how good it was. –Sebastian
I read into the wee hours of the night. The kind of book to read again and again. –Barbara
I am genuinely moved and astonished by the book. –Josh
Your book is literally breathtaking! I just ordered four copies of the book to give to people as Christmas presents. I can’t stop thinking about it. –Lori
I’m very rarely moved to tears or laughter while reading, but "A Grief Sublime" was the exception. You move through time and voices with such grace. The structure of the book is striking without distracting from the core truths. [dancing in the liminal] is one of the most beautiful passages I’ve read in my life. Thank you for your brilliance and bravery. I can’t wait to see what you create next. –Evan
This book is beautiful, rich, deep, meaningful, painful and joyful, scintillating with love and presence. I feel so honored to be brought into your intimate inner world. I hope it flies far out into the world for many many readers to experience. Your words are a gift. –Kaya
I picked up the book this afternoon. When I got home I took a peek at it but I could not stop and have just finished it now. I have cried and laughed and been able to be present in those spaces with you. I thank you for it all. –Jo
Your writing is beautiful! Couldn't put it down until it was finished. So happy and proud of you.The level of depth and growth are truly beautiful. –Caroline
Prefer to listen? Get the audiobook.
Includes the unabridged version of the book narrated by Karen Allen, selected poems read by James Warwick, and an interview between Alison Larkin and Robbins.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Beth Robbins
Writer, teacher, director, and editor.
Robbins has been a high school English and drama teacher at the Berkshire Waldorf High School for the last fifteen years. Prior to that, she worked as an editor for SteinerBooks/Anthroposophic Press. She is the founder of Keats & Co. “I have always believed in the necessity for an authentic engagement with literature and the development and validity of every one’s voice,” Robbins says. “My work with my students has been punctuated by dialogue and passionate debate, and with a focused effort on crafting writing that speaks both to the texts studied and in a voice that is true to the student. I strive to accomplish the same in my own writing.”
Robbins has developed curriculum around the Romantics and Transcendentalists, among many other subject areas including Beowulf and Chaucer, Dante and Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf and Jorge Luis Borges.. Keats and the Romantic poets have always been favorites, but after the sudden, tragic death of her husband, she entered into Keats’s poetry and the notion of liminality in a life-changing way. From that moment, Romanticism and liminality have been touchstones. In 2017, the Bread Loaf Journal published her personal essay––“Fragments in Liminality: A Lover’s Discourse.” This has since been expanded into the book, A Grief Sublime.