Things to Say to a Dead Man by Jane Yolen

Things to Say to a Dead Man by Jane Yolen

Internationally renowned author Jane Yolen has composed a sequence of tough, angry, and moving love poems that express grief and gratitude for her late husband David, as witness to his treatment for and passing from cancer, and the ongoing loss that is felt years after his death.

In one poem, Yolen--a prize-winning poet, speaks of his shallow bird breath/beating beneath the cage of his chest bones. In another: Do not help me to forget./Help me to remember. And in a third:

You have gone before me into winter,
Into spring, into summer, somehow
A consummate time traveler
I can never catch up to,
Always a season ahead.

Jane Yolen, often called the Hans Christian Andersen of America, is the author of over three hundred books, including Owl Moon, The Devil's Arithmetic, and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight. The books range from rhymed picture books and baby board books through middle grade fiction, poetry collections, nonfiction, novels, and story collections for young adults and adults, and two books of adult poetry. Her books and stories have won two Nebula Awards, a World Fantasy Award, a Caldecott Medal, the Golden Kite Award, three Mythopoeic awards, two Christopher Medals, a nomination for the National Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award. She is also the winner (for body of work) of the Kerlan Award, the World Fantasy Association Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Catholic Library's Regina Medal.

SALLY LLOYD-JONES is the author of How to Be a Baby and other publications.