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Death Tractates
A celebrated poet asks anguished questions about separation and loss.
From the depths of sorrow following the sudden death of her closest female mentor, Brenda Hillman asks anguished questions in this book of poems about separation, spiritual transcendence, and the difference between life and death. Both personal and philosophical, her work can be read as a spirit-guide for those mourning the loss of a loved one and as a series of fundamental ponderings on the inevitability of death and separation. At first refusing to let go, desperate to feel the presence of her friend, the poet seeks solace in a belief in the spirit world. But life, not death, becomes the issue when she begins to see physical existence as "an interruption" that preoccupies us with shapes and borders. "Shape makes life too small," she realizes. Comfort at last comes in the idea of "reverse seeing": that even if she cannot see forward into the spirit world, her friend can see "backward into this world" and be with her.
Death Tractates is the companion volume to a philosophical poetic work entitles Bright Existence, which Hillman was in the midst of writing when her friend died. Published by Wesleyan University Press in 1993, it shares many of the same Gnostic themes and sources.
From the depths of sorrow following the sudden death of her closest female mentor, Brenda Hillman asks anguished questions in this book of poems about separation, spiritual transcendence, and the difference between life and death. Both personal and philosophical, her work can be read as a spirit-guide for those mourning the loss of a loved one and as a series of fundamental ponderings on the inevitability of death and separation. At first refusing to let go, desperate to feel the presence of her friend, the poet seeks solace in a belief in the spirit world. But life, not death, becomes the issue when she begins to see physical existence as "an interruption" that preoccupies us with shapes and borders. "Shape makes life too small," she realizes. Comfort at last comes in the idea of "reverse seeing": that even if she cannot see forward into the spirit world, her friend can see "backward into this world" and be with her.
Death Tractates is the companion volume to a philosophical poetic work entitles Bright Existence, which Hillman was in the midst of writing when her friend died. Published by Wesleyan University Press in 1993, it shares many of the same Gnostic themes and sources.
- GenresPoetry
59 pages, Paperback
First published July 6, 1992
3 people are currently reading
229 people want to read
About the author
Brenda Hillman
41 books57 followersBrenda Hillman (born March 27, 1951, in Tucson, Arizona) is an American poet and translator.
She is the author of ten collections of poetry: White Dress, Fortress, Death Tractates, Bright Existence, Loose Sugar, Cascadia, Pieces of Air in the Epic, Practical Water, for which she won the LA Times Book Award for Poetry, Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire, which received the 2014 Griffin Poetry Prize and the Northern California Book Award for Poetry, and Extra Hidden Life, among the Days, which was awarded the Northern California Book Award for Poetry. Among the awards Hillman has received are the 2012 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the 2005 William Carlos Williams Prize for poetry, and Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.
A professor of Creative Writing, she holds the Olivia Filippi Chair in Poetry at Saint Mary's College of California, in Moraga, California.
Hillman is also involved in non-violent activism as a member of the Code Pink Working Group in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2016, she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
She is the author of ten collections of poetry: White Dress, Fortress, Death Tractates, Bright Existence, Loose Sugar, Cascadia, Pieces of Air in the Epic, Practical Water, for which she won the LA Times Book Award for Poetry, Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire, which received the 2014 Griffin Poetry Prize and the Northern California Book Award for Poetry, and Extra Hidden Life, among the Days, which was awarded the Northern California Book Award for Poetry. Among the awards Hillman has received are the 2012 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the 2005 William Carlos Williams Prize for poetry, and Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.
A professor of Creative Writing, she holds the Olivia Filippi Chair in Poetry at Saint Mary's College of California, in Moraga, California.
Hillman is also involved in non-violent activism as a member of the Code Pink Working Group in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2016, she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 20, 2016
I was taken by Brenda Hillman last year, inexplicably - at least to me - since experimental and somewhat obscure poetry isn’t something I’d say was my favourite. But I really enjoyed “Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire” and admired the freedom and energy of the poems.
I found “Death Tractates” second-hand and despite the uninviting title said hey I know her and why not so I did and as much as I was once again prepared not to like it, I really liked it. It is more straightforward than “Seasonal Works.” The poems revolve around the death of a mentor of Hillman’s. I’m sure someone knows who - I don’t. It’s not important.
It’s a book written in grief but the poet puts that slightly aside to ask questions and wonder about existence. This sounds boring. It’s not. There’s mystery about the friend’s death, as if the beloved one were still present, only separated a little, and unreachable. The dead woman is often referred to as a bride and she is everywhere or so one would like to think. The poems aren’t filled with tears or wailing, but with thought and careful wondering.
Here’s the start of ”Seated Bride” -
She had died without warning in early spring.
Which seemed right.
Now that which was far off could become intimate.
I said to the guides, let’s stand
very close to the mystery
and see how far she’s gone…
The speaker expresses the loss of someone she admired and relied on, someone who gave the speaker, too, definition. The identity is wounded in a way, surprised by the loss of something that helped shape it. There are also references to “shape,” as if life gave us shape, but a temporary one.
One of the best poems is “Much Hurrying,” which begins:
—So much hurrying right after a death:
as if a bride were waiting!
Crocuses sliced themselves out
with their penknives. Everything well made
seemed dead to them: Camelias. Their butcher-
paper pink. The well-made poems
seemed dead to you ….
A tractate sets out to explore a particular subject. It’s an attempt at comprehension, or in this case a number of attempts, since the title is plural. The attempt might not succeed - it’s the effort that matters.
I recommend Brenda Hillman. Since I’ve quite randomly tumbled into two of her books and found them both worthwhile, I wouldn’t worry about which one you choose.
I found “Death Tractates” second-hand and despite the uninviting title said hey I know her and why not so I did and as much as I was once again prepared not to like it, I really liked it. It is more straightforward than “Seasonal Works.” The poems revolve around the death of a mentor of Hillman’s. I’m sure someone knows who - I don’t. It’s not important.
It’s a book written in grief but the poet puts that slightly aside to ask questions and wonder about existence. This sounds boring. It’s not. There’s mystery about the friend’s death, as if the beloved one were still present, only separated a little, and unreachable. The dead woman is often referred to as a bride and she is everywhere or so one would like to think. The poems aren’t filled with tears or wailing, but with thought and careful wondering.
Here’s the start of ”Seated Bride” -
She had died without warning in early spring.
Which seemed right.
Now that which was far off could become intimate.
I said to the guides, let’s stand
very close to the mystery
and see how far she’s gone…
The speaker expresses the loss of someone she admired and relied on, someone who gave the speaker, too, definition. The identity is wounded in a way, surprised by the loss of something that helped shape it. There are also references to “shape,” as if life gave us shape, but a temporary one.
One of the best poems is “Much Hurrying,” which begins:
—So much hurrying right after a death:
as if a bride were waiting!
Crocuses sliced themselves out
with their penknives. Everything well made
seemed dead to them: Camelias. Their butcher-
paper pink. The well-made poems
seemed dead to you ….
A tractate sets out to explore a particular subject. It’s an attempt at comprehension, or in this case a number of attempts, since the title is plural. The attempt might not succeed - it’s the effort that matters.
I recommend Brenda Hillman. Since I’ve quite randomly tumbled into two of her books and found them both worthwhile, I wouldn’t worry about which one you choose.
July 12, 2017
this made me sad
December 18, 2024
There is so much to love here. Hillman speaks beautifully, of course. Subtle yet powerful motifs occur and recur elegantly and effortlessly. Incredibly profound and moving yet unpretentious. This might not be for everyone but the work delivers on the premise.
December 28, 2024
Sad and beautiful. Hillman stunningly articulates the in between alive and dead that is mourning.
"And I began to know what she meant by the magic, spreading—" (Divine Laughter)
"And I began to know what she meant by the magic, spreading—" (Divine Laughter)
January 23, 2017
What is gone can't answer; but if you listen, everything else speaks. Any question you have ever had about loss is answered by what's left behind. The resolution here is beautiful: it's that you're alive.
This is literature. This is life. This is pain and ecstasy and fear and joy all bundled into an image of something silly: a smeared reflection of a bird. A lampshade flower. A plum tree. The soul you lost is still here in all of those living things. It is in language itself.
This is the language of grief. It is a bird. A flower. A tree.
This book-- in particular, the imagery-- forced me to look at what's still here. And that is the greatest gift a writer can give against the fear of death, the reminder to live and to be alive.
This is literature. This is life. This is pain and ecstasy and fear and joy all bundled into an image of something silly: a smeared reflection of a bird. A lampshade flower. A plum tree. The soul you lost is still here in all of those living things. It is in language itself.
This is the language of grief. It is a bird. A flower. A tree.
This book-- in particular, the imagery-- forced me to look at what's still here. And that is the greatest gift a writer can give against the fear of death, the reminder to live and to be alive.
August 9, 2007
This is the most insightful, accurate, and yet mystical account of grief I've ever read. I heard Hillman read in the spring of 2000, and, in a discussion of her interest in gnosticism, she observed of her dead friend (the inspiration for this book), "It's not that she's far away - it's that she's unavailable." She gets it.
December 1, 2020
Just re-read this. Still one of my favorite poetry books, and definitely Brenda's best. Her voice (and thought) comes through so human-ly, flawed and immediate. Every time I re-read this, I get something more.
December 28, 2012
Strange little lyric things. Enacts grief, early grief, being caught inside it.
August 26, 2020
This slim volume of poetry gets right to the imponderable metaphysics of grief and loss:
—That the soul got to choose. Nothing else
Got to but the soul
Got to choose.
That it was very clever, stepping
From Lightworld to lightworld
As an egret fishes through it’s smeared reflections—
Through it’s deaths—
For it believed in the one life,
That it would last forever.
You can make a case that poets are the only ones who stand a chance at capturing the liminal nature of dying and these poems would support your cause.
—That the soul got to choose. Nothing else
Got to but the soul
Got to choose.
That it was very clever, stepping
From Lightworld to lightworld
As an egret fishes through it’s smeared reflections—
Through it’s deaths—
For it believed in the one life,
That it would last forever.
You can make a case that poets are the only ones who stand a chance at capturing the liminal nature of dying and these poems would support your cause.
January 29, 2019
Moving, ethereal, gorgeous poems about a resonant subject. These poems are thematically connected and yet each one stands out as its own exploration of grief, acceptance, and longing for the departed friend. This is a collection I'll be revisiting and recommending to my students. Kudos!
October 26, 2024
beautifully lateral
November 26, 2025
grief; confusion; watching; forwardness/across; liminality; borders; poetry; seeing; speaking to the dead
December 30, 2020
A beautiful and candid look at specific grief. Lyric poetry at its finest. Recommended.
February 24, 2008
Generally pretty interesting. A kind of philosophical and long elegy in many parts which rolls conversationally over a hidden structure, giving it the feel of the musings of a working (and grief-stricken) mind.
February 27, 2012
Brenda Hillman is one of my favorite living poets, and this book is the reason why. In some ways, later books like "Cascadia" and "Practical Water" are more dazzling, but this is the one I come back to the most.
August 14, 2007
Several friends call this their 'favorite book.' I need to converse with them to find out what the fuss is all about.
January 13, 2008
this is one of my favorite books of poetry.
Read
September 28, 2008Read this book. And read it for the mockingbird song.
Read
April 11, 2010"But still I held on; holding on / is my specialty. I held on to her image, / to the moment of death, to the problem / with pronouns; maybe I'd learn."
November 15, 2015
(3.5)
"and I wanted to hear just one voice
but I heard two,
wanted to be just one thing, but I was several"
- from "Secret Knowledge"
"and I wanted to hear just one voice
but I heard two,
wanted to be just one thing, but I was several"
- from "Secret Knowledge"
August 11, 2025
beautiful + powerful + very moving.
March 3, 2013
great, great.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews