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Pandemic at full tilt, the diagnosis came--cancer. Maybe you've known crisis or are walking a loved one through the terrible unknown. The heart plummets. The mind shrills. We blame genetics. Toxins. Lifestyle. How can we not blame ourselves? Can this be thrown on God?
If we listen to the emptiness behind every unanswered why, what will we hear? While life and death circle overhead, heckle and intimidate, exhausting faith, these poems talk with touchstones around us. Eavesdrop on whispers for answers. These poems explore what we have--and what's left. Who made the hawk? And the lionhearted songbird? What do they tell us about courage? What else is present?
About the author
Susan Cowger, poet and visual artist, focuses on images that represent the human condition. Her book Slender Warble was released in 2020. Her poems have appeared in books including A Tale of Two Trees (2023) and In a Strange Land: Introducing Ten Kingdom Poets (2019). Others have been published in Ekstasis, Fathom, Presence, Mockingbird, and Scarab Hiding, a chapbook (2006). Cowger is founder and editor emeritus of the journal Rock & Sling. Contact her at susan@susancowger.com.
