(Isstories Editorial):- San Diego, California Jan 9, 2026 (Issuewire.com) – Vale & Mercy is a short poem film written and directed by visual poet Lisa Grisly Miller and produced under her independent imprint, Diadema Escura. Set during the late-night drive home from hospice work, the film unfolds along quiet streets and November roads, where the ghostly apparition of a departed romantic partner appears. Blending spoken verse with restrained visuals and subtle animation, the film holds moments of encounter between loss and continuity, allowing them to pass without resolution.
As the drive continues, the ghost appears twice–first on Vale Street, then again on Mercy Street–standing at the roadside, waiting, unchanged. Moving through familiar roads and passing streetlights, the film lingers in the tension between what is gone and what persists.
“In Vale & Mercy, I wanted to show how grief is never linear, and how music can stir the presence of a loved one,” says Miller. “The film holds that quiet comfort–the sense that those we’ve lost may still visit us during the most ordinary moments of life.”
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About the Artist
Lisa Grisly Miller is a writer and visual poet whose work moves between poetry, photography, and short-form film. Her work engages memory, intimacy, and loss through disciplined visual composition, music, and narration, articulated in a dark, cinematic language. She is the founder of Diadema Escura, an independent production imprint.
Vale & Mercy is now available to view online:
