A NEW KIND OF AIR POETRY BOOK

A new kind of air is a my second collection of poetry. Unlike my first book Some Things Scattered Around, this book is thematically focused, with all the poems centered around an extreme health crisis experienced by my wife. The poems generally fall into two categories. The first simply documents our experiences together though this challenging season. This would include the poems, “Piano Lessons” (documenting me teaching lessons while worrying about my wife’s health) “MRI” (a poem about the growing fear as an M.R.I. was approaching) and “The King Of Fear (a poem about sleepless nights while wrestling with the fear of death). The second category of poems are a response to these situations, focusing on themes of hope, perspective, and resilience. This includes the poems “A New Kind Of Air” (a short and simple poem about the feeling of hope, even when situationally things have yet to improve), “The Moons Pull” (dealing with the idea of releasing control), and “A New Frame (a poem about recontextualizing the struggles of our life, and seeing them in a new light).

My goal with this book is that these poems are an encouragement to any one who feels like life is falling apart.

Here is the opening poem from the book.

Piano Lessons

I was afraid

To leave you here

To leave you on the couch

When it was time

And when I was away

My mind wasn’t there

And when I said “thumbs on c and f”

I was thinking of you

“Thumbs on c and f

And everything else

Will take care of itself

The thumb notes are the guide”

And the child played

Up and down the scale

Almost like a circle

Almost like my mind

Loop after loop

As if the child

Had been commissioned

For the soundtrack

Of my worry