Free Copy: Behind Us the Way Grows Wider by Sheila Bender

Sheila Bender's New and Collected Poems

Sheila Bender's new collection Behind Us the Way Grows Wider considers the full spectrum of a life well lived. This book brings together a selection of Bender's work from nearly thirty years. Poems like "First Sex After the Loss of Our Son" and "Six Months After My Son's Death, I Chant to Sing For Him" are beautiful pieces that manage to express grief in compelling and fresh ways. However, this is not a book focused on loss as much as it is a celebration of the resiliency of those of us who find a way to travel on past catastrophe.

The final section of the book, my favorite, is called How It Is Now: New and Uncollected. This section takes a few lines from Hafiz as its epigraph.

Out
Of a great need
We are holding hands
                      And climbing.

I love the generosity of this quote and believe its message is at the heart of this strong collection.


Two of my favorite poems in the collection --- but there are many more to love: "In February" is from the first section of the book and "A New Theology" from the final one.

In February

Today the cherry tree is grey

as fossil. On its bare boughs

raindrops are winter pearls.

Yesterday a brief change in the weather.

High in the branches a robin,

the fat warrior of spring,

held its breast to the early sun.

Suppose when my letter reaches you,

I have fallen from your memory

like ripe fruit. That would be

most perfect, to remain the pull

of something finished.

Or perhaps my name still slips

to your tongue as words

sometimes slip. For cabbages and sunlight

you’d say my name, for canoe, laurel,

minnow and finch. The wind is old

and carries many words.

I loved you. I loved you.

A New Theology

For Seth Bender, 1975-2000

Who has no likeness of a body and has no body

is my son, now five months dead

but in my dreams, my dreams he brings the peace in gardens.

And I see him in his smile and he is hardy

in the rolled up sleeves of his new shirt, well-fed

when he has no likeness of a body and has no body.

I see him next to me in conversation at a party

and I believe that he is fine because this is what he said,

because in my dreams, my dreams I sit with him in gardens.

The nights he comes, the cats moan long and sorry.

I believe they see his spirit entering my head,

he who has no likeness of a body and has no body.

In my life, accepting death comes slowly,

but the midwifery of sadness and of shock bleeds

afterbirth, dreams that bring the peace in gardens.

I know that he is far and he is here and he is holy.

Under sun, I feel the energy it takes to come away from God

who has no likeness of a body and has no body

who is in my dreams, the dreams that bring me gardens.

 ***
If you would like a free copy of Behind Us the Way Grows Wider, please leave me a comment and you will be entered in a drawing. If you win, Sheila will send you a signed book. Just leave your comment anytime between now and September 30th at midnight Pacific time. It's that quick and easy.