Introduction [excerpt] Inventory of the Gone became a meditation-- or, more honestly, an obsession-- with the ever-complicated human experience of and relationship to loss. Loss takes many forms in this collection from death, to losing who you knew somebody to be to addiction, to losing the self and others to mental and physical illness, to the loss experienced through change, to the severing of relationships, etc. These poems attempt to find the right images and right words...

Abstract Songs to Sick Blood is a poetry collection that explores one family's experience of illness, loss, and rupture. These poems chronicle grief in its many forms: loss of a loved one, loss of wellness, loss of self, and loss of comfort. The poems' speakers look honestly and unflinchingly at their experiences to attempt to make sense of life's ebbs and flows in health, family, and happieness. Keywords: Poetry, loss, grief, grieving, death, illness,...