First Light
In First Light Lynn Hoggard has assembled her most recent and best poems. These are beautiful, touching, and painful accounts of Lynn and Jim Hoggard struggling with his Parkinson's.
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The book is an unusual series of poems that merge into a single long poem exploring the intensity and power of devotion, love, and loss.
The poems suggest an emotional narrative of interwoven tender and difficult moments, yet each poem is a complete lyric in itself. Readers will want to mark and return to specific poems and will find themselves rereading pages at random.
In this remarkable book, Lynn shares what she and Jim experienced during his final, inevitable human journey, one made more difficult and poignant by the ravages of Parkinson's.
Lynn Hoggard makes masterful use of both free verse and traditional poetic forms, and she communicates feelings using numerous poetic devices, especially graphic imagery.
Reviews
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“Isn’t this what poetry seeks? To take a moment and infinitely, unrepeatedly expand its implications for ourselves and others? Through a creative act of love, this collection of poems frees the infinitely possible universe from confinement.” –Dennis Kratz
“First Light can be approached as a single long poem or as a series of related poems. Either way, it expresses and clarifies the experience of loss and the way forward after loss. It is affecting and edifying. It has helped me cope with my own loss, and I have sent copies to other friends who have recently lost loved ones.” —Claude Summers
“In the same way the poet was a devoted help and companion to her beloved husband, this book can be a companion to any person who has known great love and great loss. Her vision pushes our horizons outward toward infinity while her words not only remind us, but also offer proof that love is indeed stronger than death.” –Ysabel de la Rosa
“You won’t forget this book, a tiny, elegantly printed book that makes you aware how firmly she condensed her lyric powers into these honed poems.” –Paul Christensen
“An astonishingly powerful collection that stands as a virtuoso example of how great writers can turn pain into art.” –C.W. Smith