Loose Leaf Notes

 Each mark is a dream / that tells more than one truth / and believes in the existence / of the next page…                                                         

Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife is the culmination of 40 years of writing poetry.  The collection, being published by Finishing Line Press, is the distillation of life down to its essence, a memoir told in dream shorthand, and something of a last testament.  They say you can’t take it with you, but maybe what’s more important is what we leave behind.

What do we pack? What do we let go off in preparation for what David Whyte calls “apprenticing to our own disappearance?”  Is the soul the one carry-on we can take with us?  What it the weight of loss?

I ask these questions as someone influenced by Carl Jung and Jungian psychology.  But I was also influenced by Erma Brombeck, the humorist who wrote a newspaper column when I was growing up.  I remember reading her as a teenager and thinking ‘You get paid to do that?’ and ‘Maybe I could do that.’ It wasn’t that she taught me humor as much as she validated the humor already in me.

So, it was no surprise to me that author and poet Jim Minick described Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife as playful yet dark, frank and funny, yet somber … for the book’s back cover review quote. He goes on to quote from the following lines in the book.

…I keep a Scrabble dictionary / in the backseat of my car / and a kaleidoscope in my glove compartment / What else do you need to know?

 – This is the last week of pre-orders which determines the press run number for publication.  You can click HERE to read more or to order.

Note: Poets from Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads can click on the video above for my poetic contribution for today’s Tuesday’s Platform..