“Alone Together: Love, Grief and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19,” Edited by Jennifer Haupt

What do NPR’s poet-in-residence Kwame Alexander, Somali-American poet and essayist Sadia Hassan and “House of Sand and Fog” author Andre Dubus III have in common? They’ve all joined dozens of other poets and writers to share what they’ve experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic in a new anthology, “Alone Together: Love, Grief and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19.”

Credit: jenniferhaupt.com

Jennifer Haupt — an introvert who nevertheless relies on small, daily interactions with others to boost her spirits — was inspired to create the anthology after learning that the contract for her second novel had been cancelled. “Taking some kind of positive action, moving outward into the world again, became a necessity for my survival,” Haupt wrote. “I didn’t have money or powerful influence, but one thing I did have was my community of writers.” She began asking people to contribute an essay or poem toward an anthology to benefit cash-strapped independent booksellers, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Soon after, “Alone Together” was born.

“Alone Together” Illuminates Why We Read

In the movie “Shadowlands” by William Nicholson, C.S. Lewis’ character states that “We read to know we’re not alone.” Certainly, many will relate to the struggles depicted in “Alone Together,” such as grocery shopping for high-risk friends and neighbors, finding creative ways to celebrate graduations — and, often, grieving from a distance.

Some essays are incredibly touching — such as the one describing a young neighbor who showed up to play a Bach sonata for Susan Henderson’s mother on his violin. Henderson’s father had recently died, and her mother watched, masked, from the front steps. As Henderson wrote of her mother:

It’s an awful way to grieve. For fourteen days I can’t hug her. Worse is knowing, since my father died, no one has hugged her.

Other essays are somewhat obvious or mundane in that readers are currently living with the same limitations: masks, social distancing, uncertainty. The most inspiring draw on the pandemic to illuminate other aspects of life: Faith Adiele’s differences with her husband; the story of love and loss behind Gina Frangello’s Zoom wedding; Caroline Leavitt’s painful estrangement from her sister; Jean Kwok’s hilarious reflections on clumsiness and grace.

We also read to transport ourselves, or to unearth things — to unveil new perspectives and fascinating worlds. Kelli Russell Agodon and Melissa Studdard’s far-reaching — even cosmic — poem, “I Kind of Want to Love the World But I Have No Idea How to Hold It,” is both expansive and revealing. Jane Hirshfield’s “Today, When I Could Do Nothing,” meanwhile, celebrates the small victory of having saved an ant:

Ant, alone, without companions,
whose ant-heart I could not fathom —
how is your life, I wanted to ask.

I lifted it, took it outside.

This first day when I could do nothing,
contribute nothing
beyond staying distant from my own kind,
I did this.

These multiple small acts of intimacy, bravery and courage provide a balm in challenging times. “Alone Together” reaches out and gathers up the voices of various writers to remind us that we can, in our own way, do the same.