It Took Long Enough

My book of poetry, "Welcome to Wilderness: poems" came out in e-format in 2015 on Amazon and iBooks.  I have been wanting it out in paperback ever since. Finally, I got it. If you want to look at it, both formats are available on Amazon: http://a.co/4AhQHo9. The paperback should be available through most bookstores, although you will probably have to ask them to order it (hey, it is poetry 😀). I'm not sure that it's always true that "good things come to those who wait," but sometimes some stuff comes!

I Will Never Get Over It

People gave me what they thought was good advice: to give myself time to grieve and to get over the death of my only child. I am never going to get over Anne’s death. I realize that now.  I understand why people said it and I appreciate the impulse they had to be sympathetic and helpful. I tried to get over it but, well, just no. It won’t happen. I will never stop missing her. I will never stop second-guessing and wondering ”what if.” I’ve accepted that fact. But I also realize that I need to do things other than mourn. 

Specifically, I need to get back to writing. I’m not sure why that’s been so hard. Friends seem to think that getting back to work will be good for me. They could be right. I do know that at some point I have to start writing again, so perhaps that point should be now. So here goes. I won’t get over it but maybe I can get on with it.

My Worst Day Ever

It was my worst day ever and I am still living it. It began at 3:00 AM on May 18 with a call from a hospital. My daughter was in the ICU. She had called 911 and gone out to wait on her apartment steps for the ambulance but when they arrived she was unconscious. Her heart stopped and it took them forty-five minutes to restart it.  She never regained consciousness. 

What happened was cardiac arrest, caused, I think, by a pulmonary embolism. Yes, she smoked. She told us she had stopped but I guess kids of whatever age always lie to their parents about some things. (Except, of course, I never did. Right.) The clinical details are important but not the most important thing. Life is short, yes, but it wasn’t supposed to be that short. Children are “not supposed” to die before their parents. I lost my beloved child and the world lost a creative and caring and funny soul.

I tried to talk to her in the hospital. She was unconscious and in massive organ failure but I tried. I tried to feel her spirit nearby but that failed, too. We were in the room with her when she died. Since then I’ve been hollow. I do a fair job of pretending to be human, or at least I think I’m doing a fair job. That my daughter was an adult and living on her own does not make her loss any easier to bear. Some people seem to think so, and it is simpler to hide the grief and the guilt. Yes, guilt. Parents always, apparently, think there were things they could have done to alter events. Some things never change.

My own life seems to have stopped. I am doing things that need to be done after a death: funeral home, lawyer, cleaning out her apartment, writing her obituary, adopting her three cats. Since we already had two cats we now have five. Yikes. 

I know I need to get back to work. I woke up the other day with her voice in my head saying, “Mom. Just write the book, Mom.”  I’d like to but so far I just can’t. What I want to do is call her up and make outrageous puns with her. Maybe she could give me a call some early morning in my dreams and we could goof around.

Wait. I forgot Goodreads?

Someone recently told me she had read “A Changed World” and enjoyed it. She said there was a really nice review of it on Goodreads, which is how she found it. Goodreads. Hmm. I have an account on Goodreads but I have been remiss about doing anything with it, anything at all. Had I been missing something? I went over there to look.  

I have been missing a lot, apparently. There is all sorts of stuff happening there, so much that I almost ran away again, overwhelmed. But I didn’t. I decided to get my feet wet slowly and find books that I might want to read. That wasn’t hard to do and I have lists now. And yes, I did check out the reviews of “A Changed World.” There’s a really nice one. Now back to making lists of books I want to read. Oh wait, here are links to stores with “A Changed World”: https://www.books2read.com/u/3Lrp2M

Springtime Silliness

Sometimes it's not about anything profound or even anything useful. More often than not  what runs through my head is not useful. Silliness can be fun, though, and I think Spring brings that out in people. So as a poet  I thought I would share this in-depth version of a classic Spring poem:

It’s Spring, it’s Spring,

The bird is on the wing!

Somehow that seems absurd.

I think that it should rather be

The wing is on the bird.

More availability

"Out of Stillness" is now available at Barnes and Noble, too. It's accessible through the same mega-link that works for all the stores: https://www.books2read.com/u/3LrBjD  You just click and pick. I'm not sure what took Barnes and Noble so long but the good news is, the book is there!

It's Ready!

"Out of Stillness" is available now at several online bookstores. They are all accessible through this one link, which can take you to the store of your choice: https://www.books2read.com/u/3LrBjD. The link includes includes access to Amazon and ibooks and a couple of others.  It should be available soon at Barnes and Noble, too. I'll post that link when I get it.

As Promised!

As I promised, here comes the new poetry book, "Out Of Stillness." It should be available very soon. I wanted to show off the cover  in advance; I really like it! I'll let you know when it's up and running!

Good Intentions

I’m supposed to post this blog regularly, whatever that means. Or that’s what I tell myself. As you can see, I don’t. I still have good intentions but we all know what’s paved with those.  I have good intentions despite still dealing with illness, both my own and family’s, and all the usual stuff. (“Stuff” includes interesting endeavors such as repairing my own plumbing .) So now what?

I have decided to give my good intentions half a chance and act on them. I’m back to work writing, although at a somewhat reduced rate for the moment. I do have another book of poetry that’s almost ready, which could perhaps be considered a sign of good faith. It will be cool! Stay tuned. Oh, and a belated Happy New Year.