The Litany of Missing

Aruni Wijesinghe is a project manager, ESL teacher, occasional sous chef and erstwhile belly dance instructor. She holds a BA in English Literature from UCLA, an AA in dance from Cypress College, and a certification in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from UC Irvine.
A Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, her work has been published in journals and anthologies both nationally and internationally. In 2020 she served as guest editor of Redshift 5, an anthology of pandemic-themed poetry (Arroyo Seco Press). In 2021 she co-authored The Undulating Line: Writing Poetry Through Belly Dance (Picture Show Press), a collection of essays, poems and writing prompts that explores the connection between dance and the poetic impulse. Aruni's first solo full-length collection of poetry, 2 Revere Place, was published in May of 2022. (Moon Tide Press).
The Litany of Missing is Aruni's second poetry collection. In it, she explores the themes of love, loss, the non-linear journey of grief, and how what is lost is ultimately found again.
She lives a quiet life in Orange County, California with her husband Jeff and their cats Jack and Josie. You can follow her writing at www.aruniwrites.com and on Instagram @aruniwrites. In reading The Litany of Missing, I am reminded of words in Robert Hass's "Meditation at Lagunitas" Longing, we say, because desire is full/ of endless distances. The Litany of Missing is filled with distances: geographic distance, the distance between want and fulfillment, and the ultimate chasm between the living and the dead. Wijesinghe's poem, "November 1st" begins: you arrive/ as a wintering monarch/ the day the veil between worlds/ is thinnest. This collection is a tender meditation on desire and grief.
-Donna Hilbert, author of Threnody, and Gravity: New & Selected Poems A love story like no other, told in linked prose and verse so hypnotic it shakes us to our collective core. Wijesinghe's journey transports us through the vicissitudes of memory, longing, grief, and poor timing, mining the deepest emotions without a trace of sentimentality. Her searing examination of loss gives readers new perspective on their own blessings, one of which is getting to read the work of this powerful and important voice. "My camino is toward a different compass bearing," she writes. Follow her path.
-Bruce Ferber, author, I Buried Paul An achingly vulnerable journey into the wilderness of grief and the accompanying despair, rage, and longing. We join Aruni Wijesinghe as she wistfully embraces recollections of her beloved Alex and mourns the dimensions of what could have been. Her captivating depiction of a friendship that traversed years, languages, cultures, and countries will leave an indelible impression on the soul of anyone who has loved and lost. The Litany of Missing courageously honors the pain of loss and embodies the process of starting anew in the face of anguish.
-Veronica Waters, M.S., LMFT