{"product_id":"terminal-surreal","title":"Terminal Surreal","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis unflinching poetry collection follows the author’s diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e In her masterful poetry collection \u003ci\u003eTerminal Surreal\u003c\/i\u003e, Martha Silano confronts the reality of mortality with gorgeous attention to imagery and scene. The book follows a trajectory from early symptoms before diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to full-blown illness and its effects on friends and family, including her children, who appear in poems like “After Dropping My Son Off at College” and “My Nineteen-Year-Old Daughter Is My Personal Assistant.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e With a devoted naturalist’s eye, Silano revels in birds, trees, and flowers in a way that reminds readers we are connected to the world around us. The book touches on the medical, the metaphysical, and even the cosmological (through encounters in medical offices and on a moon of Mars). With Nutter Butters and Lorna Doones, abecedarians and self-elegies, Silano’s singular, feisty, contemporary voice propels these poems of grief and acceptance as they explore the transformational power of art.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When I Learn Catastrophically\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e is an anagram of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.\u003cbr\u003e When I learn I probably have a couple years,\u003cbr\u003e maybe (catastrophically) less, crossword puzzles\u003cbr\u003e begin to feel meaningless, though not the pair\u003cbr\u003e of mergansers, not the red cardinal of my heart.\u003cbr\u003e The sky does all sorts of marvelously uncatastrophic\u003cbr\u003e things that winter I shimmy between science\u003cbr\u003e \u0026amp; song, between widgeons \u0026amp; windows, weather\u003cbr\u003e \u0026amp; its invitation to walk. Walking, which becomes\u003cbr\u003e my lose less, my less morsels, my lose smile\u003cbr\u003e while more sore looms. . . .","brand":"Acre Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54719687459160,"sku":"9781946724946","price":18.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781946724946.jpg?v=1777933820","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/terminal-surreal","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}