Stranger

by Laura Sims

A mother's illness and death is only the beginning of the story of STRANGER. This is a death whose presence and particulars are inscribed. We feel from all angles, as Sims's quicksilver narrative moves through a mother's life and its incompletion, apprehension of death, and the adult child's attempts at comprehension. In the end is a hopeful hopelessness approaching Eternity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1934200239
• ISBN13: 9781934200230
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Fence Books
• Length: 77 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

The poetic story reaches beyond earthly life into the theme of an afterlife

Prize-winning poet and writing teacher Laura Sims presents Stranger, her second collection of free-verse poems. The poetry weaves a complex narrative about a mother who falls ill and dies too young; her surviving child must work through guilt. What is a mother, truly, after she has passed on? The poetic story reaches beyond earthly life into the theme of an afterlife, in this unforgettably poignant collection. "Wherever we went the mountains followed": You shuffled behind / In your long pearl dress, ridiculous / Lily / Pinned to your chest / Come on / The mountains are gaining / Have eyes / For those flimsy white curtains.