Emerson Park

About this poem

On October 10th, 2008, a woman entered my life who I've never met, and who I'll never forget. When I arrived home from work that day there was a story on the news about a woman who was found dead on a park bench in Grand Junction, Colorado. She was very young, only 34, homeless, and died there alone in the open elements. Her name was Heather Tripler. I can't even begin to explain the overwhelming grief and saddened that hit me after having heard this—a grief and sadness that is fresh with me still. A few days later it snowed, and as I stood there by the front door watching it calmly descend, I couldn’t stop thinking about her—homeless and by herself, all alone in that park. This is when I knew that I had to write about her. I promised myself that I would allow the poem to come to me on its own, to never force it, and to scribe every word as if Heather were standing there next to me. Two years later the poem was complete. Initially, I was just going to keep the poem t more »