Nusye McComish – SouthSeaEyes

This is the Aftermath,

This space is a space for my writing of grief.  For me.
These are my words used to navigate the landscape, mindscape of a grief-stricken terrain.

A wiser person than I once told me words are powerful. Stumbling through this new and strange land, I found this to be true. These words are, then, my means to make sense — to grasp understanding, to reclaim some masure of power, of my agency, over experiences that tore through what was once a steady life, where printmaking was — is? — an honest form of narration of our lives together. 

These writings are raw, they mirror the bursts of emotions, of being stricken, struck by unexpected juggernaut that ripped through our lives.

What you find here are not entirely chronological. This reflects the grief, it is non-linear.


Some days I write from the stinging edge of fresh loss. Some others, from a plateau where acceptance seems possible – almost agreed to, even. By morning I find myself back in the ditch, the ravine where overwhelm bursts all dams.

Perhaps then these words are my footprints in unknown lands, new territory, all unmapped. Some paths lead nowhere. Some retrace the same painful ground. Others might show a path forward, though I cannot promise where it leads. My best guesstimate is that I need to keep one foot in front of the other. One word after another. This way I might find my way to – to whatever comes next.

If you are walking similar terrain, know that there is no right way to move through this landscape. There is only the moving itself. 

A strange reminder placed itself here; a sentence I wrote so long ago, “flowing water does not stagnate”. 

In mourning,

Nusye