The Place Where Grief Begins

In The Place Where Grief Begins, Christopher Brandt wisely reminds us of a place of joy and love that is ignorant of what is coming. With uncommon honesty and emotional depth, the poet takes us through a loved one's illness and death to a complex grief that includes denial and regret as well as sorrow. Countering grief, for the reader, are the gorgeous natural details and lovely music that accompanies the poet as he remembers and returns to the place where he and his companion swam--where he dives and tries to touch the bottom, but cannot / reach it.--Martha Collins, author of Because What Else Could I Do

These poems do what good poetry does-- take us where the poet has a hard time going. They let us share the plums he speaks of having brought his love. I went out into wet dawn, brought her blueberries in a bowl. The regret that he did not say what was in his heart then. Which, after all, is what grief is. Not so much an absence, but the thought of how much more we might have made of the time before the absence. Brandt brings the weight of such grief home, climbing the stairs, drunk enough to talk to the mirror. In every way, with references to the life of theater and myth that they loved, he lets the poems speak, in hope that the lady might hear them, that we readers may call attention to how dearly he holds her memory. I called her my baby girl, my honey...And still she slipped away. They are beautiful reminders to say our love, while we can.--Mervyn Taylor, author of Country of Warm Snow

Chris Brandt, with poetic magic and a chant from the soul, has turned grief into a subtle celebration of love memory. This short collection is poetry of the flesh and soul; a great testimony of life, friendship, and love.--Jean Dany Joachim, City Night Reading Series, Cambridge MA

Poetry.