What does one do with the unbearable grief of losing your spouse, the witness to your life of 60 years together, first to the ravages of dementia and finally to death?

When her husband, Arthur died in 2022, Freddie Steinberg answered that question with her pen, writing a book of beautiful and loving poems chronicling their years together and capturing the heartbreak and tenderness during Arthur’s final years.  Arthur, the son of the renowned BSO conductor, William Steinberg, was a polymath as comfortable lecturing at MIT on English literature, philosophy, and poetry as he was fixing up and riding his motorcycles or repairing the farm equipment on their beautiful property at the base of Mt. Ascutney in Vermont.  Freddie who grew up in that community also taught at MIT and loved her life-long connection to the Upper Valley which will be continued through their two sons and grandchildren.

These poems, most comprising less than a full page, are full of keen observations built upon a life lived lovingly and closely together.  My favorite poem is entitled ‘Bookmarks’: “He sat, knees crossed,/reading Max Weber/ or Cycle World./  Sometimes Ann Sexton,/Kafka, Ezra Pound/and Henry James./  On this couch, he plowed/through Moby Dick/and smiled through histories/of Titian and Venice./  That was then./Now the bookmarks/no longer move.”

The poems in this beautiful volume are accompanied by many color photographs of Arthur and Freddie, their family, and happy times in Vermont.  The photographs of them as a young couple and at their wedding are a touching reminder that time does not stand still.  This is a love story, a tale of lives well-lived, and ultimately a fond farewell to a dear companion.  Freddie has shown how grief can be channeled into creativity.  I’m grateful to her for sharing this volume with me.