B O O K S

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0. 96 pages.
0896723194
978-0-89672-319-1

The Andrew Poems

By Shelly Wagner

A single tragic moment changed Shelly Wagner's life forever.

That moment was July 26, 1984, a soft summer evening in Virginia. She was pushing Andrew, her five-year-old son, in a tire swing; idling away those few languid hours between dinner and bedtime. Shelly went into the house for a moment; when she returned to the back yard, Andrew had disappeared. He was found later that night, drowned in the river behind their home.

From the depths of grief and sorrow that followed Andrew's death, Shelly discovered a natural talent for writing poetry. First she read the poetry of others who had struggled with the death of a child. She called these classic poems "exquisite," but said they didn't express how she felt. Encouraged by her brother to write poetry, she began her Andrew poems. "I didn't do it for therapy," she said. "I did it to do it, to see if I could write my own . . .."

What emerged from Shelly's quest is a powerful volume of verse, a book that lifts poetry to a new plane.

Treasure

Follow my hand into this trunk.
Examine for yourself its treasure.
Lift and read the heavy wooden board,
a scrap of lumber
on which he scrawled his name—
red letters, all capitals,
the E backwards.
In kindergarten he learned
to sign perfectly his many drawings,
the jewels of his last will and testament.
Try on his brilliant yellow sunglasses.
See the world as he saw it—clearly
full of hope.
Slide your hand up the sleeve
of his favorite red shirt
as though you were to tickle him.
He would laugh. You may cry.
Finally, with utmost care,
hold what he made in nursery school—
a white plaster cast of his hand,
fingers spread wide apart
as though he were telling you
how old he would be when he died.