SONGS FOR A LOST SON

Death, particularly the death of a child, in this case the author's five year old son, is difficult to write about and these poems, from scenes in the hospital to speculations about a malignant brain fever to the final distribution of the ashes, may well be as cathartic for the reader as for the author. But along with his moving anger, there is of course a certain inevitable sentimentality (red mittens, discarded toys) as well as one poem admits, a certain need to exacerbate his loss. But there are often moments which transcend the raw, personal sense of grief.