Showing results for "first" in Death, Grief & Loss

The First Flower After the Fire is a companion for the quiet journey through the aftermath of a shattering event. It is a collection of poetry that speaks to the moments that feel unspeakable—the initial shock, the haunting echoes, the slow mending of the scars, and the gentle return of the light. This book is not a guide with easy answers. It is a quiet room, a validation of your pain, and a testament to the profound strength found in resilience.

It is fitting that the debut of Jimmy Cost – the New Mexican outlaw poet, singer and songwriter – is a memoir. A book of spontaneously fine-tuned ballads that reflect the many relationships of the multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic artist. First Thing on the Road is rooted in the connection of energies through lost love, the acceptance of unrequited love and realizing the truth in “true” love.

I lost my wife in 2020 to a brain tumor just a few weeks after we had celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary. “Celebrated” is a word that springs back when pressed down. More subdued than earlier ones, to be sure, that last anniversary was nonetheless a felt celebration of a lifetime together.

In her debut collection of poetry, Conyer Clayton hovers in the ether, grasping for certitude in often wrong places. Through experiences with addiction and co-dependence, sex and art, nature and death, she grapples for transcendence while exploring what it means to disengage. What is revealed when you allow yourself to truly feel? What do you ask for to carry you into life, and where do you land when this fails? And when you are finally, beautifully, emptied out, who are you?