I Have a Friend who Died

About the Book

Talking about death is always difficult, especially when the one who passes away is a friend. “I have a friend who died. There’s no poetry for that” is the beginning of the song by Patricio Famulari, transformed here into an illustrated book through the astonishing visual interpretation of Amanda Baeza.

The text moves through bewilderment, grief, memories, and the love that endures after loss. Without adopting a solemn tone, Famulari’s deeply sensitive poetry accompanies readers through the process of saying goodbye, remembering, and continuing to sing to those who are no longer with us.

Excerpt 

I have a friend who died…

There's no poetry for that.

I'd never felt this way before:

I have a friend who died, period.

(Better yet: period, same line.) 

I have a friend who died…

(I insist) There's no poetry for that.

Not even for a second can I forget that fact.

As soon as I wake up, it's there.

Some say, “he’s in heaven”.

Others, “he’s better off now”.

That “his soul lives in our prayers”,

but I just don't know about that.

I don't know about burning embers

or an orange butterfly… can’t say.

Or watching the Milky Way…

I keep searching and I find you in this song.

And I don't know 

about the horizon or the moon…

I don't know

about the humming bird or the sea…

I only know

that I greet you singing

I keep searching and find you

in this song. 

And I don't need you to appear

in gleaming lights

or in a shooting star

or in a whisper at my back 

or in an object moving from side to side.

And I don't need

to have a conversation, in a dream,

nor a downpour on a sunny day

nor an anonymous sound.

You and what we lived together

will always be present in my memory.

 

Translated by Sandra Botta - Edited by Cecilia Della Croce