Böcker av Charles Entrekin

My physical limitations make it impossible for me to go off and promote this book, so I feel that I can't ask HPP to bear the costs of publication of a book that can't be promoted by the full capacity of the press. Rather than participate in the editorial process, I chose these poems myself, and I am publishing this chapbook. These poems are an expression of my current process: how cancer left me immunocompromised in a pandemic, and Parkinson's disease has created "waking dreams." Glaucoma, which would seem to be the least dangerous, has cost me the most. I can't read nor write nor drive a car nor play tennis nor do anything to enjoy the full spectrum of what life has to offer, so I remain indebted to the poetic process to find life's significance, learning to embrace what remains.

Poetry. Collaboration. THE ART OF HEALING documents in poetry the experience of Charles' bout with cancer. Poets Charles Entrekin and Gail Rudd Entrekin--husband and wife, survivor and caregiver, insider and witness--beautifully, vulnerably and sometimes heartbreakingly share their finely crafted poems in this brilliant volume. In this collection, both poets were moved to make sense of what was happening in their lives through the writing of poems. Unaware of each others content, they continued writing throughout the treatment. Later, upon reflection, they realized that they had been coming to grips with the same events through poems that seemed to complement each other. These poems reflect those two journeys, from diagnosis to treatment to healing, and the coming to terms with what remains, what it means to be alive and part of a larger web of being. This is a book for anyone who has come to know the meaning of suffering and healing.