, Kim Birdsong explores the often fierce and disorienting landscape of grief. In the year following the death of her son, Kim turned toward writing to try to cope with the depth of her sadness and to come to terms with the unavoidable truth of impermanence. Her raw and honest poetry follows her journey from the first moments of pain and despair, through a period of questioning, adjustment and reorientation, and finally to revelation and acceptance.

Through these accessible verses, Kim invites readers into the dark soul territory of grief to join her on this journey. As she takes up this apprenticeship with sorrow, she tracks her inner landscape, becoming curious and paying close attention to its shifting contours and pairs this with her abiding love of the landscape. These efforts lead her through this dark terrain as she slowly gains footing on new ground.

You will hear a full range of expression and emotion-from sadness and frustration to anger and confusion and gratitude-contained in variety of forms from lyric and free verse to letter poems, list poems, structured verse and haiku. You will also feel the grace that comes from bowing to what is alive in the depths of this mother's heart.