When someone is first informed that a person they know and love has died unexpectedly, their immediate response is one of shock. They find it hard to believe the person has died because that person, they may say to themselves, was so dynamic, so real, so alive, so talented—and now that person, just like that, is gone. The poems in this book, subtitled An Earthly/Heavenly Romance, paint a picture far less dismal. The “departed” loved one asks the remaining loved one, “Do you think I’ve left your side just because my body died?”
The poems declare that the departed loved one is neither nonexistent nor far away in an inaccessible region called the “afterlife,” the “other side,” or “heaven.” In these poems, love is the key that opens the door to a fascinating world of continued relationship with the “dearly departed.” The poems say that more can be done than to just remember them. Readers will find that they can join the loved ones and continue living with them until the day comes for them to “depart.”