In Their Own Words

Griever's Circuit is a cycle of 20 poems Roby wrote in memory of his wife Mary after she died of ovarian cancer in July 2003. It communicates the grieving process through familiar but powerful images found along a walk they often took together through Grant Park. The specific references and metaphors in this chapbook resonate with the deep emotions we all have when facing the loss of a loved one. The circuit energizes these feelings in a movement that overcomes the choke points of powerlessness and obsession, advancing from threat, anger, and despair to hope, renewal, and reengagement with life. Healing comes to the poet in a transcendent vision of Mary as the gifter of poems.