The Presence of Absence

The Presence of Absence is a collection of 40 poems about death. And about life. And about the continuous thread that meanders through these two extremes, linking them in inexplicable yet unmistakable ways. The poems explore loss, love, hope, and memory; the yearning through life's turns and twists; the confusion in painful endings; the acceptance and even gratitude in the natural cycles of our world. We cannot hold loss in our hands. We cannot touch tragedy, or explore its edges with fingertips. But we can know the "intimate grasp of the invisible" in the deepest, most sacred places of the heart. From a nursing home to a church parking lot, from a train station to a lawyer's office, from the open beauty of nature to an inner personal turmoil at home, the settings in this collection lead the reader through an environment of emotion that varies widely, yet always returns to the center by the paths that remain true. In both living and dying, we must make room for that mysterious element we may never understand. Recognizing this truth may be enough to "redeem the day," even as we struggle in our humanity to make sense of our world. Sometimes, there is a perceptible presence in death and loss, and sometimes, a discernable absence in living. These poems reach towards and acknowledge both.