{"product_id":"still-life-with-sorrow-joy-lana-hechtman-ayers","title":"Still Life with Sorrow \u0026 Joy","description":"Life is fleeting, death inevitable. \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eStill Life with Sorrow \u0026amp; Joy \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003econtemplates death from myriad vantage points, including communication with those gone via letters or phone or from within the landscape of dreams, embracing the possibility of a forever connection between souls. These poems are infused with images of the cherished times spent with family and beloved pets-sweet, aching memories, as well as with images of nature's bounty-the sublime night sky, the rush of waves, the patter of raindrops. The poet faces her own aging and mortality with a sense of acceptance, hope, and even humor. Perhaps death and what follows death will always remain somewhat of a mystery, but death's dark shores can be illuminated and mapped, as they are in this collection, by thoughtful and heartfelt meditations, offering readers comfort and companionship as we all journey towards our great unknowable end.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe poems curated here are, in part, a feast of losses, but the work moves through several registers; I love that there's also dark comedy, imaginings of the afterlife, and most of all a fierce love for this world. Ayers knows \u003cem\u003ehow imagination is part dream...dipperful by dipperful\u003c\/em\u003e, how \u003cem\u003ethe sky is a blue door that opens both ways\u003c\/em\u003e. This is a book you'll want to hold close.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e-SUSAN RICH, author of\u003cem\u003e Blue Atlas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eStill Life with Sorrow \u0026amp; Joy \u003c\/em\u003eis a joyous celebration of both. Yes, poet Lana Hechtman Ayers laments, \u003cem\u003eI can't handle another\/ dead dog, \/ dead aunt, \/ dead lover, \/ dead plumber, \/ dead fly even, \u003c\/em\u003e but even this list carries a kind of delight in its unexpected variety. Ayers has learned \u003cem\u003eto carry the pebbles\/ of grief in my arms \/ without dropping a single one\u003c\/em\u003e. Indeed, this collection makes them shine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e-PENELOPE SCAMBLY SCHOTT, \u003cem\u003eauthor of gOD: A Respectfully Divergent Testament\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis exquisite series of poems is an extended meditation on death, loss, remembrance and transformation...We readers know that we are in the presence of a powerful sensibility, as the poet summons us to \u003cem\u003ecome like a clock that chimes all hours, \u003c\/em\u003e and we must heed her voice, because (as she addresses the force of life itself) \u003cem\u003eeach day you fly the moon over my house \/ like a flag of welcome.\u003c\/em\u003e This is a poet who can teach us how to live, with joy, with our own dying, and what better cause for celebration could we have?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e-CAROLYNE WRIGHT, author of \u003cem\u003eMasquerade\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThis Dream the World: New \u0026amp; Selected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Lana Hechtman Ayers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44411229405226,"sku":"9781968610227","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/still-life-with-sorrow-joy-3866813.jpg?v=1780290254","url":"https:\/\/thepoetryshop.com\/products\/still-life-with-sorrow-joy-lana-hechtman-ayers","provider":"The Poetry Shop LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}