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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 Ghost of the Glass Photo of the Day
July 13, 2016

The Ghost of the Glass

There is a specific silence that lives in the windows of a city after the rain has stopped. It is not the silence of a library or a forest, but the silence of a mirror waiting to be looked at. I remember the storefront on 4th Street, the one that held a display of porcelain […]
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The Geometry of Waiting Photo of the Day
July 13, 2016

The Geometry of Waiting

There is a specific silence that belongs to a street corner when the light is red. It is not the silence of a library or a forest; it is a held breath, a collective pause where a hundred lives stop moving in the same direction at the same time. I remember the way my father […]
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The Weight of the Unseen Photo of the Day
June 26, 2016

The Weight of the Unseen

There is a specific silence that belongs only to the high places, the kind that does not just sit in the air but presses against your chest until you realize you are breathing someone else’s ghost. I remember the coat my father wore—the one with the heavy wool collar that smelled of woodsmoke and a […]
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The Weight of the Unspoken Photo of the Day
June 8, 2016

The Weight of the Unspoken

There is a specific silence that lives in the rooms where my grandmother used to pray. It is not an empty silence; it is a heavy, velvet thing, thick with the residue of words that were whispered into the air and then left behind. I remember the way she would press her thumb against the […]
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The Weight of Paper Flags Photo of the Day
May 27, 2016

The Weight of Paper Flags

There is a specific silence that follows a celebration, the kind that settles in the dust after the crowds have dispersed and the colorful paper streamers have lost their luster. I think of the small, hand-painted wooden train my brother left behind in the hallway twenty years ago—a toy that once carried the weight of […]
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The Breath That Vanished Photo of the Day
May 26, 2016

The Breath That Vanished

There is a specific silence that follows a sudden burst of heat. It is not the silence of peace, but the silence of a consumed thing. I remember the way my father used to light the wood stove in the winter, that singular, violent moment when the match met the kindling and the air itself […]
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The Architecture of Solitude Photo of the Day
May 10, 2016

The Architecture of Solitude

My grandmother’s kitchen table was once scarred by the heat of a heavy iron kettle, a mark that proved she had been there, moving through the morning. Now, the table is gone, and the kitchen is a hollow space where the light hits the floorboards in a way that feels like an intrusion. We spend […]
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The Geography of Lost Intentions Photo of the Day
April 12, 2016

The Geography of Lost Intentions

There is a specific weight to the map you no longer carry. I am thinking of the paper city guide I once held in a coat pocket, its creases worn white and soft until the paper finally tore along the lines of the Latin Quarter. It was a map of a version of myself who […]
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The Echo of a Gesture Photo of the Day
April 12, 2016

The Echo of a Gesture

There is a specific silence that follows a sudden shout of delight—the kind that hangs in the air long after the voice has retreated into the throat. I remember the way my brother used to point at the horizon when we were small, his finger tracing the jagged line where the earth met the sky, […]
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The Weight of the Unseen Photo of the Day
April 6, 2016

The Weight of the Unseen

There was a heavy, woven basket that sat by the back door of my grandmother’s house, smelling perpetually of damp earth and salt. It was never empty, yet it was never full; it was a vessel for the transition between the river and the kitchen. Now, the basket is gone, and the back door leads […]
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The Ghost of Play Photo of the Day
April 4, 2016

The Ghost of Play

There is a specific silence that follows the end of a game. It is not the silence of peace, but the hollow echo of a space that was, only moments ago, vibrating with the frantic, unburdened energy of childhood. I remember the way the dust used to settle on the porch after my brother stopped […]
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The Weight of Crossing Photo of the Day
March 17, 2016

The Weight of Crossing

There is a specific silence that belongs to a ferry terminal, the kind that settles in the marrow when you realize you are leaving a version of yourself on the shore. It is not the departure itself that haunts, but the sudden, sharp awareness of the space you no longer occupy. I remember the worn […]
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