THE NEXT BREATH IBD

Sinopse

A collection of 45 poems in 5 sections,áThe Next Breathátraverses the last 50 years of the 20thácentury and the first decades of the 21stábut not in a sequential way. The first poem of the book, 'Twenty Twenty,' is a kind of prologue that takes us right into the current pandemic, while the next poem, 'Visitors,' a ghostly third-person meditation with a vague sense of modernity, leads into another poem squarely placed in a small midcentury town in the Midwest where the first-person narrative describes a motherâÇÖs French toast. One could say these are quotidian poems dealing with the small, at times humiliating, details of life. One could also say that the poems are a powerful and poignant study of 'self.' Self-actualization, -realization, and -awareness. Generously accessible, readers cannot help but come to know the poet better and, if they savor the words deeply enough, discover more about themselves. The collection comes to an end that contemplates the impact of global warming, tempered by a postlude poem, 'Missive,' that suspends time and place in a dreamy, meditative way.