'We poets like to think that there is no limit to what we can do with words. And yet we know too well that there are moments when no combination of words, no amount of poetry, can be adequate to express what we feel. Such as when it comes to saying farewell to someone we treasured and loved. When it comes, indeed, to try to encompass, with words, a loss as sudden, as unjust, and as profound as the loss that has brought us together here this afternoon.'
(Introduction)