Introduction

There cannot be a family in America which has not been touched at some point by a spouse's death from the disease of cancer. And the first principle of certainty people learn in dealing with cancer is there is no principle of certainty. The silent killer comes upon us mysteriously and unbidden at any age and oftentimes can never be stopped in its tracks.

Personal Story

The poet's wife Gillian Richardson died of breast cancer in September of 2009. They had fallen in love at Oxford in 1961, were long separated in mid-life, and finally reunited in 1995 and married in 1999.

Inspiration and Themes

Feverishly inspired in April of 2010 by the disaster of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and in the context of his late wife's lifelong crusade to preserve Earth's environment from pollution and degradation, the poet saw the double tragedy of death in his marriage and the death of human and marine life in the Gulf of Mexico as triggers for a cosmic lamentation which have here become uniquely intertwined in verse.

View on Poetry

Understandably, therefore, although verse no longer survives as a commercial medium in the United States, Sullivan views English poetry as a still vital and powerful medium for communicating the anguish and pity of contemporary life on the one hand, and for condemning lawless corporate abuses in twenty-first-century America on the other.

Poetic Structure and Themes

The poet aims his satire at the oil industry (Book I), the mining industry (Book II), Wall Street banking (Book III), and at public indifference toward its own predatory exploitation (Book IV). But the poems end in a triumphant mood of eternal love, and an affectionate, sometimes whimsical celebration of his beloved wife's memory, her circle of friends, close family, and loved ones (Book V).