Being in touch with feelings--naming ones stirred up by a loss--can be critical in terms of moving ahead productively. Loss comes in many different packages: losses of relationship whether by death, divorce, or some other means; loss of status as per experiencing retirement or down-grading with respect to jobs; material loss whether homes, savings accounts, etc.; loss of function whether declining health, loss of a body part, etc. Whatever the loss there is an accompanying need to grieve. Wright's own experience of a metastatic breast cancer diagnosis has been her most challenging loss in life. Her poetry is honest in terms of the feelings she has faced. Instead of glossing over the challenges of loss, she attacks them head-on. This is especially true in terms of the conversations she has with God. Her desire is to grant permission for readers to be equally honest in terms of feelings they encounter with respect to their losses in life.

Shirley Biggerstaff Wright holds a DMin from Erskine Theological Seminary, Due West, South Carolina, with her dissertation involving the Psalms and grief. Her MDiv is from Candler School of Theology, Emory University. She is a retired minister in the United Methodist Church. Much of her focus in ministry has been in the area of loss and grief.