Regret Not Me, my new Portable Memorial Jewelry

Its been a year of losses for many around me and I have found myself making jewelry as a kind of portable memorial for those who grieve, and also as a symbol that there is hope for the future even in the darkest of times.

The top image is of my Regret Not Me earrings just added to etsy, these were inspired by the Thomas Hardy poem of that name, in this poem, Hardy speaks of slumbering peacefully beneath a tree. These earrings are black as the pain of grief, but the etched bead is like a nut or seed for new life and the leaf is also symbolic of the life cycle. Although I could only use an excerpt of the poem in my listing, here is the poem in its entirity, from my beloved book "Poems of Thomas Hardy, selected and introduced by Claire Tomalin" (Penguin Classics 2006)
Regret Not Me:

Regret not me

Beneath the sunny tree

I lie uncaring, slumbering peacefully.

Swift as the light

I flew my faery flight

Ecstatically I moved, and feared no night.

I did not know

That heydays fade and go

But deemed that what was would be always so.

I skipped at morn

Between the yellowing corn

Thinking it good and glorious to be born.

I ran at eves

Among the piled up sheaves

Dreaming, "I grieve not, therefore nothing grieves".

Now soon will come

The apple, pear and plum

And hinds will sing, and autumn insects hum.

Again you will fare

To cider-makings rare

and junketings; but I shall not be there.

Yet gaily sing

Until the pewter ring

Those songs we sang when we went gipsying.

And lightly dance

Some triple-timed romance

In coupled figures, and forget mischance.

And mourn not me

Beneath the yellowing tree

For I shall mind not, slumbering peacefully.

(Thomas Hardy)

I also have these czech cross earrings in black and gold, this pair on a chain, a second pair hangs simply from their earwires, in brass findings.

My heart goes out to all who have lost near and dear ones, may you find some hope and comfort in your lives.