It’s strange how this one started. I was stuck, needing to move forward creatively, personally, and professionally. I kept hunting around for the next step. When you’ve spent a lot of time moving though grief, and recovering from being a caregiver, you might find yourself thinking about what the next step could be from time to time.

The answer was always the same: write more poetry.

Not the answer I was hoping for. I’ve written poetry since I was very young, it’s always come easy for me. It has not shown itself to be a tool to launch me forward in life. Yet here it sits, at the center of all my writing.

First I gave myself the assignment of writing one poem a day for thirty days, post it somewhere public, no excuses - NO apologies. It felt good. I started waking up early, rolling over to start a new poem. I might work on it through the day and publish at night, or it might be polished enough by dawn. Some of them I liked quite a bit. A few of them show up in this book of poems.

After I finished I was still hungry to write more, and I knew what was next. Though poetry and grief are natural companions to me, I haven’t found the wealth of good poetry on this topic that I’d expected. It was time for me to dig in deeper, give myself another assignment. 30 poems was not enough, for some reason I needed just one more.

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Grief does mend us and it leads us to an inner terrain we are not encouraged to visit in our daily lives. Most of us need to be called there by the pull of something truly significant. Once there we need not feel ourselves to be alone or completely without compass, we are not. That terrain is not really ours alone. It belongs to the entirety of humanity, and a few other species as well. We may not see the footprints of others there, but we walk on them with every step.

Should you choose to buy this book I trust you’ll carry it with you, if you visit that place. The journey there is incredibly challenging in so many ways, but we don’t have to fear it. There are fires there to sit around, and even a few good travelers to meet along the way. You might make a poem or two of your own to share with others. It’s always good to have an offering of some kind with you, when you travel in places like that.

It’s available now for download on blurb.com . https://www.blurb.com/b/12184601-grief-mends

Below are links to a few of the poems I shared here as short videos:

Wilder Grief

Out in Sept 2022, Wilder Grief: Discovering the Song of Life After Loss, explores the transformative power of loss and grief in the years following the death of my wife, the mother of our two children.

Click to hear me read a chapter.

Amazon Kindle or Softcover

Blurb PDF or Softcover

What people are saying

“Writing about grief is not easy. Nor is reading about it. But as I read Tim Flynn’s account of how he helped his young son and daughter, and himself, survive the grief over his wife’s death I found myself on that tender edge between amazement and tears. There are no easy answers to questions like ‘Is Momma everywhere now? Will we get a new Momma?’ But Flynn found ways to keep her presence alive with dreams, music, poetry, the forest, shamanic practices, and the paternal love that helped to fill the emptiness left by his wife’s passing.This is a remarkable book that will help us if we are currently grieving, or if not, then prepare us for when we will.” 

Tom Cowan Teacher and Author of "Fire in the Head: Shamanism and the Celtic Spirit” as well as many other titles on spirituality and Celtic culture.

Original cover art, Colloquey Between Earth & Sky by Izzy Cleary @izziedclearyartist on Instagram.