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Contributing Writer Grief, Absence & Negative Space

Amelia Cross

Amelia Cross has contributed to Light & Composition since 2015. Her Reflections meditate on what is no longer there — the absence with a shape, the gap left by something specific that once existed. Amelia's writing is never vague in its grief: she names what is gone, precisely, and finds in that precision a kind of staying power. Readers return to her pieces at particular times of year. They tend to know exactly why.

287 Published Reflections

Reflections by Amelia Cross

Showing 12 of 287 essays
The Weight of What Remains Photo of the Day
October 7, 2018

The Weight of What Remains

There is a specific silence that lives in the shadow of a skyscraper. It is not the absence of noise, but the absence of human scale. I remember the old bakery on the corner, the one with the uneven floorboards that groaned under the weight of a single customer. It was replaced by a glass […]
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The Blink of a Lifetime Photo of the Day
September 27, 2018

The Blink of a Lifetime

There is a specific weight to the things we miss because we were looking at them too closely. I remember the way my mother’s hands looked when she folded laundry—the exact rhythm of the fabric, the way the cotton smoothed under her palms. I spent years watching those hands, yet I cannot recall the precise […]
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The Edge of Breath Photo of the Day
September 12, 2018

The Edge of Breath

There is a specific silence that lives at the edge of a cliff. It is not the absence of sound, but the absence of ground. I remember standing on a precipice years ago, watching the way the air seemed to thin, as if the world were losing its grip on itself. When you look down, […]
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The Weight of a Simple Hunger Photo of the Day
September 4, 2018

The Weight of a Simple Hunger

There is a specific silence that follows the end of a meal, a quiet space where the urgency of hunger has finally been quieted. I remember the way my grandmother would sit after the dishes were cleared, her hands resting on the worn wood of the table, the frantic need to provide having momentarily vanished. […]
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The Weight of the Shift Photo of the Day
September 1, 2018

The Weight of the Shift

There is a specific silence that settles into a room when the machinery stops. It is not the absence of noise, but the sudden, heavy presence of the exhaustion that noise was masking. I think of the blue work shirt my father wore until the fabric grew thin at the elbows, the way it held […]
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The Weight of Stillness Photo of the Day
August 20, 2018

The Weight of Stillness

There is a specific silence that belongs only to the middle of the day. It is not the heavy, velvet silence of midnight, but a thin, bleached-out quiet that happens when the sun is at its highest and the world has simply run out of things to say. I remember the porch swing at my […]
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The Weight of Becoming Photo of the Day
August 19, 2018

The Weight of Becoming

There is a specific silence that belongs to a child who has been asked to carry the weight of a tradition they do not yet fully understand. I remember the heavy wool of my own school uniform, the way the fabric felt like a costume for a person I had not yet become. It is […]
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The Weight of Wings Photo of the Day
August 14, 2018

The Weight of Wings

There is a specific silence that follows the departure of a thing that was never meant to stay. I remember the way the porch screen used to rattle when the wind caught it, a sound that defined the stillness of my grandmother’s house. Now, the screen is gone, replaced by glass, and the house holds […]
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The Weight of Petals Photo of the Day
August 12, 2018

The Weight of Petals

There is a specific silence that follows the falling of a bloom. It is not the silence of a room where someone has left, but the silence of a life that has finished its singular, quiet task. I remember the white lilies my mother kept on the windowsill; they would eventually brown at the edges, […]
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The Weight of the Petal Photo of the Day
August 4, 2018

The Weight of the Petal

There is a specific silence that follows a heavy rain, the kind that settles into the soil and turns the air into something you can almost taste. I remember the garden behind my childhood home, specifically the way the zinnias would bow their heads after a storm, heavy with water they were never meant to […]
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The Weight of Gold Photo of the Day
May 27, 2018

The Weight of Gold

There is a specific silence that follows the departure of a morning visitor. It is not the silence of an empty room, but the heavy, lingering stillness of a space that has just been vacated. I remember the way the light used to hit the kitchen table at exactly seven in the morning, back when […]
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The Weight of a Gaze Photo of the Day
May 16, 2018

The Weight of a Gaze

There is a specific silence that follows the departure of a guest. It is not merely the absence of conversation, but the lingering pressure of a presence that has suddenly evaporated. I remember the way my grandfather would sit in the wingback chair, his head tilted slightly to the left, listening to a radio program […]
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