The Dividing River / The Meeting Shore

The poems of The Dividing River / The Meeting Shore were composed by acclaimed author and poet David Kherdian after the mid-life death of his closest childhood friend. By tracing their friendship back to its beginnings he brings to the reader all the treasured moments that are common to each of us, and in giving them a new life, he miraculously transforms our grief and makes continuation possible. In essence, Kherdian charts a new beginning, and shows us how by keeping the past alive in ourselves, we can better prepare our future. The poetry of The Dividing River / The Meeting Shore lifts us out of our present moment by providing a pathway to a new beginning.

The Dividing River / The Meeting Shore is a complex work, a metaphysical poem in 41 numbered movements : Not a love song, although it is about the experience of love, not a dirge, although it is about the experience of loss, but a multifaceted meditation on the mystery of individual lives and the mystery of friendship, especially the kind of fated friendship that lives and grows on the long arc of destiny: The mysterious meeting of essences / when they conjoin does not consist / of the materiality the Earth provides / but rather the meeting of substances / as of star clusters (from Poem 41).

Reviews and Endorsements

“The Dividing River / The Meeting Shore is a beautiful book of poetry. Poetry about life, friendship and death. Recommended for all awakened souls who are looking for a real treat.” — Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

“Your poems are, indeed, exquisite. They are full of true feelings and an inner beauty that can only be generated by emotions that run deep. The loss of a dear friend leads to memory, a dimension that intensifies the meaningful things in one’s own past, and how precisely you have captured it all. It is a masterly work.” — Nona Balakian, New York Times Book Review