Preening For The Mortician

In his brilliant poem At one time Rob Dakin writes Everyone/I loved/by blood/was in this room/where Im sitting now /together.//But there was/no cat.//Now/there is/a cat: . The sense of loss in the poem is all the more powerful for being understated. That loss is at the heart of this wonderfully titled collection. Sometimes with subtlety often with bravo Dakin gives voice to isolation and to the length men will go to alleviate that elemental existential condition. its a collection for the times...for all time Sue William Silverman author If the Girl Never LearnsArticulate intelligent and honest Preening for the Mortician is a soliloquy. These poems evoke an image of the poet standing on a bare stage speaking to the blackness with a resonance that compels the audience to closely listen. Whether reflecting on the cold that follows empty intimacy offering an elegy to slaughtered children or contemplating contentment it is a voice that exposes common sense rationales and rewards the reader with the surety that these revealed truths matter.Constance Stadler is the author of several collections of poetry including Responsorials (with Rich Follett) Paper Cuts and Descending Upward.