Connoisseurs of Suffering is a powerful collection of poems exploring the potential meanings in suffering. Suffering is an inevitable part of life and, perhaps, a necessary one: if we love enough, we eventually experience loss and get hurt. The choice is not between suffering and not suffering so much as between suffering for something and suffering for nothing. The poets featured in Connoisseurs of Suffering have chosen the former path--to suffer for something--and have found meaning through the pain they endured and, in some cases, continue to endure. These poets have chosen to courageously share the wisdom and grace that has emerged from their pain. The contributors to Connoisseurs of Suffering include award-winning poets and authors as well as psychologists and other mental health workers. The poems are powerful, provocative, and often quite raw with pain and meaning. While the poems will not alleviate your suffering, they will help you feel less alone. As Dave Elkins wisely says in the Foreword, "Life is indeed difficult but it's a whole lot better when we listen, really listen, to one another's pain... and care." Reviews: When the smoke and mirrors are put away, what is experienced as therapeutic is being truly understood by another soul bearing witness to our pain. In Jason Dias and Louis Hoffman’s new compilation of poetry, Connoisseurs of Suffering: Poetry for the Journey to Meaning, we are granted that blessing over and over and over again. What becomes all too clear on this journey through these poems is that poetic discourse is the sine qua non best practice for courageously attempting the impossible: giving words to the ineffable quality of suffering and the indestructible desire for someone to “get it.” Poetry is our only hope of doing so, and these poets do it! If you are hurting, this book will be a friend that will go to hell and back with you. Bravo! Todd DuBose, PhD Distinguished Full Professor The Chicago School of Professional Psychology Connoisseurs of Suffering: Poetry for the Journey to Meaning is an exquisite journey into the experience of suffering. This is a poignant, stirring collection. I found myself nodding “yes” while reading the poems and digesting others’ experiences, relating to them, and feeling less alone through the comfort of their words. Other times, tears came to my eyes both in remembering my own losses and my own pain, as well as finding the joy inherent in the confrontation of it. This is a book for those of us who believe that relief isn’t about avoiding suffering, but rather finding meaning in our experience of it. Joy can only be experienced if we are first able to embrace our pain. This is a beautiful collection—haunting, affecting, brilliant, and true. Suffering has meaning if we know how to find it. Jacqueline Simon Gunn, PsyD Clinical Psychologist and Author Table of Contents Acknowledgments Foreword by David N. Elkins Introduction: Learning to Savor the Flavors of Suffering Poems The Immensity by Carole Stedronsky Carry My Tears by Gina Belton A Father’s Invitation: A Sestina by Caroline Johnson When They Bring the News by Jennifer Highland After Anbar Province by Christopher Woods The Names Quilt by Rosanna Radding 17 by LeesaMaree Bleicher Vicodin by Sarah Gajkowski-Hill Advice from Alice on the Attainment of Wonderland by Marta Ferguson Faith by Maria Terrone Broken Keys, Reforged Strings by Sophie Paulette Jupillat You Are Not My Mother by F.I. Goldhaber Lullaby by Carole Stedronsky Starting Over by Marta Ferguson She Used to be Many Things by Deborah Mashibini-Prior Amputation by Sarah Gajkowski-Hill Bessie Arrowood’s Circle of Life by Karen Paul Holmes Sisters by Rona Dale Schenkerman Burned by Karen Paul Holmes Childhood Call by Kathy O’Fallon Dear Denise Duhamel by Iris Jamahl Dunkle Calling on Faith by Stephen Mead Client by Kathy O’Fallon Dad by Jason Dias Christmas Card by Carol Barrett Compared to This by Jyl Anais Ion Embrace It by Nesreen Frost Complicit by Louis Hoffman Beyond Eulogy by Stephen Mead Echocardiogram by Karen Paul Holmes Enlightenment by Dan Hocoy Fiftieth Anniversary by Sharon L. Charde Fifty Years After by Maria Terrone Fog by Nesreen Frost Catching a Connection by Carrie Pate Fire Inside by Jyl Anais Ion Firing Loud Noises by Eva M. Schlesinger Vintage by Sharon L. Charde Frida Kahlo Prepares an Altar for Día de los Inocentes by Susan J. Erickson From a Burn Unit by Stephen Mead Given Fire, Given Water by Susan J. Erickson Golden Gate by Lynn Domina Gratuity by Carolyn Martin Goodbye by Jason Dias Her Boots by Patricia A. Nugent Hearts by Jason Dias Her New Room by Carl “Papa” Palmer Hollow Stems by Sally Bliumis-Dunn Honeymoon Faith by Melissa Hobbs Hour of Exchange by Carol Barrett I Am the History That I Will Never Be by Anne YJ Hsu I Am Part Wolf by Eva M. Schlesinger I Don’t Fall Down by Emily Lasinsky I Wonder Why by Marlee Kongthong Night Sounds by Diana Raab The Origin of Dementia by Carol Barrett Goodnight My Pain by Nathaniel Granger, Jr. I’m Still Here by SuzAnne C. Cole With These Words by Maria Terrone In This Remote Forest… 1939?1945 by Gail Eisenhart Isolation by Jyl Anais Ion Joke by Nesreen Frost Lamentations by John C. Mannone Jealousy by Anne Harding Woodworth Late Visions by Lynn Domina Latex Touch by Stephen Mead Grey by Carole Stedronsky Memorial by Carol Barrett Night Rising by Margo Taft Stever Madrone by Amy Rutten Night Scene by Sharon Scholl One Month Since by Carolyn Martin Teaching by Example by Jeremy Cantor Pequod by Paul Seelenfreund Dear Heart by Iris Jamahl Dunkle Perception by Nesreen Frost Golden Lilies by Caroline Johnson Scheduling Death by Louis Hoffman Letter to St. John Liccio by Marcella Remund Purpose in Pain by Joseph Ellison Brockway In the Therapy Room by Carole Stedronsky Steadfast by Debbie Theiss Ash by Sharon Scholl Surviving on Hope by Joseph Ellison Brockway The Break by LeesaMaree Bleicher The Christmas Jar by John Lyhne Tombs by SuzAnne C. Cole Walking by Richard Bargdill The Ship We Build by John Lyhne This Morning by Sharon L. Charde Trail Blazing by Carol Barrett Twice Now by Mary C. McCarthy Vessel by Emily Vieweg Vigil by Kathy O’Fallon The Black Hat by Jon Vreeland Afterward by Mary C. McCarthy Wounds by Toti O’Brien Faded Chinese Ballroom by Jason Dias This is the Best Way I Can Explain It to You by Katie Quarles At the Crematorium by Carole Stedronsky New Life by Darya L. Zabelina Shaking the Ground Loose by Roberta Bisgyer To Be Free About the Editors |