The Painted Bed

Donald Hall’s anthology “The Painted Bed” is a moving collection of poetry. Hall, who spent more than 20 years married to fellow poet Jane Kenyon, wrote this book to address the sadness and rage he felt in the two to three years that followed her passing. The beds in which they were married, Hall’s sick bed from which she nursed Kenyon, and her deathbed are all mentioned in the title.

In addition to meditating on life and acceptance in old age, the poems tackle themes of love, loss, and sorrow, portraying the raw emotions of grief along the way. The fourth section of the book, “Ardor,” sees Hall moving toward accepting a new existence as eros reappears.