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SHE WOULD DRAW FLOWERS
by Kirsten Savitri Bergh.

This poetry book, written by a 17 year “young”woman, embraces life, death and love in a way that invites us in. Authentic, light-filled and down to earth.

Kirsten Bergh was 17 when she died suddenly in a car accident. She Would Draw Flowers is her legacy of art and poetry which weaves a rich tapestry of joy, beauty, and inner transformation. Waldorf Education, which schools the imagination through story-telling, poetry, and visual arts, gave her a wholistic view of the world which encouraging self-expression. At age 16, Kirsten faced the death of her father and other personal life challenges. Poetry was her way of penetrating through her grief and loss to confirm that love is the strongest thread in the fabric of life. This book is her offering that can inspire and guide us all in strengthening our living connection to people, nature and the cosmos.
Introduction by Linda Bergh, written April 1997, five months after the death of her daughter.

Kirsten was seventeen when she and her friend Nina died. I had come to visit them in Harlemville NY where they were both attending Hawthorne Valley, a kindergarten through senior high school. I was a passenger in the car with them and was the sole survivor of the accident. My last memory was feeling our car slide out of control as we rounded a curve into the path of an on-coming sixteen-wheeler. It was later reported that black-ice conditions were the probable cause of the accident.

Kirsten left a legacy of paintings, drawings, and poetry which she wrote during her high school years. These are among the few tangibles I now hold to remember my daughter. But the profound path of her inner transformation shared in these poems has also served as my guide for letting her go. As I share them with others I discover that they, too, find a pathway to her. This pathway, in spite of all the pain of loss, remains open.

So I offer with this book a means by which all who knew and loved Kirsten might rekindle feelings of warmth, love, and compassion for her. I believe these feelings of warmth will find their way to her as nourishment and help her on her continuing path. As a mother, each day facing this unimaginable loss, I question how I might remain connected to my beloved daughter while leaving her free to journey on.

I find answers in the poems that Kirsten has left. It is my hope that you will also experience the comfort, inspiration, and hope that these poems continue to awaken in me.