Bones of His Being

In unflinching lyrics, Sue Chenette confronts her father's depression and death.

Probing memories, fingering mementos - a square nail, a sketch on a napkin, she examines them for what they may reveal of the father she was sure she knew, deepened, in death, into the mystery of his own being. The poems are a journey through grief, both a search for the father she loved and a searching look into a father/daughter relationship.

At the heart of the book, the sequence "A Transport of Grief" explores a weave of pain, need, and blame, of family grudges and love, moments of solace, and the sweeping sense of loss that attends a parent's death.