Comments on: Jason Shinder (1955 – 2008)

By: Nancy

Nancy — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:02:56 +0000

My deepest sympaties to Marty and Nina and her family love Nancy

By: Nancy

Nancy — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:01:26 +0000

So sad to find this out,so many months later. His cousin nancy remembers so many funny things about Jay and his sister Nina.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:20:51 +0000

Jason was my 1st cousin…a truly loving, kind and sensitive person, generous to a fault and there for me on more than one occasion in my past when I needed him. My sympathy to his sibling and the people that were close to him.

By: nina

nina — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:15:59 +0000

I LOVE READING ALL ABOUT HIM.. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE

By: Nikki Dunas

Nikki Dunas — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:04:23 +0000

i knew Jason through Bennington also. He was a man with greater generosity of spirit than most I know. He was always willing to look out and listen, even when he was in great pain. A few months before he died, he was still hanging out with students, listening to us, giving us his insight. I will miss him greatly.

By: celeste w

celeste w — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:21:55 +0000

I knew Jason from his work with the YMCA. He was, as so many have now described him on their blogs, kind, sincere, wise, and inspiring.

As he once quoted to me in response to an email I sent stating that I missed working with him and working at the YMCA, “What thou lovest well remains.”

He was loved by so many and his spirit will remain with us.

By: Laura Orem

Laura Orem — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:08:49 +0000

Jason was one of the lights that save us all from darkness. I studied with Jason over ten years ago at Bennington, and I still carry him with me every day. Nina, our hearts are with you and your family – Jason talked about you all the time, and it was obvious to anyone how much he loved you. I remember a story he told about visiting your daughter’s class, and how every time things lagged, he’d pass out candy, “and they thought I was terrific!” he’d say. Oh, he was, he was! Poetry was such a gift to him, and I remember him telling me always say, when asked, “I am a poet,” that it was an honorable thing to be. I remember, too, how he always included other people’s poems in his readings, including this one. I have never been able to read it since without hearing his voice:

Spring and Fall: To A Young Child
by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow’s springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

Now, it is Jason we mourn for, but how very lucky I feel to have known him, and how lucky the world is to have his poems.

By: daniela

daniela — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:34:39 +0000

what a beautiful poem. so essentially a poem…

By: Shari

Shari — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:17:09 +0000

While I never worked with Jason when I was at Bennington–different genre–we became friendly. He always made me feel good about my writing and about myself. I remember at the end of one very late evening he spent with me and another friend he said, I leave you now, with a poem. Though I can’t recall the exact poem it was many verses long and beautifully recited from memory. It was the most wonderful nightcap I’ve ever had. I’m glad I had the chance to know Jason.

By: Lingual X

Lingual X — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:09:47 +0000

I’m so sad. I loved his work; he was one of my favorite poets. I remember hearing him read and just feeling like his words carried you away from the room into another place. I’m so sorry.