Desk on the Sea
Regular price
€21.99
Regular price
€25.99
Sale
Sale price
€21.99
14 days return policy
Shipping & Delivery
A01=Jonathan Johnson
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Jonathan Johnson
automatic-update
care taking
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=BM
Category=DNC
Category=VFJX
Category=WTL
continuity
COP=United States
creation
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_health-lifestyle
eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_travel
geographic place
grief
hope
illness
Language_English
loss
love
PA=Available
parenting
poetry
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
Scottish coast
seasons
softlaunch
travelogue
Product details
- ISBN 9780814346655
- Weight: 348g
- Dimensions: 137 x 213mm
- Publication Date: 03 Jun 2019
- Publisher: Wayne State University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
The Desk on the Sea begins four years after American poet Jonathan Johnson spread his mother's ashes in her beloved Lake Superior and moved with his wife and young daughter into a seventeenth-century cottage on Scotland's North Sea. On an idyllic, desolate coast and in the wild Highlands, Johnson began his search for a way to live through ongoing grief and to take in the wonder of each new day.
Through years of extraordinary suffering by way of multiple ailments, Johnson's mother, Sheila, endured an astounding number of amputations-a toe, the end of a finger, a foot, whole fingers, the other foot. What she lost in her physical being, she gained in her kindness and generosity. By the time she was told that the only way she could survive a little longer was the amputation of both hands, she was capable of giving those who loved her and herself a beautiful death instead. Inspired by her example of grace and awareness, Johnson and his family gave themselves one year on the coast of Scotland to live by Shelia's great, guiding principle: We don't get the days back. They wandered trails along windswept shores and past the stone ruins left by people who'd come and gone before. They played as characters from Harry Potter on deserted beaches. From their cottage, they watched an island lighthouse, counting the seconds between flashes to know exactly when to say ""goodnight"" so the lighthouse would answer with a wink.
The Desk on the Sea is a chronicle of progress toward one man's new life goal-to be a father, husband, and poet worthy of his mother's legacy. Sustained by an unwavering belief that words can help us fully occupy our lives, and that imagination and empathy can transform suffering into what John Keats called ""soul-making,"" Johnson offers readers a raw look at love and loss.
Through years of extraordinary suffering by way of multiple ailments, Johnson's mother, Sheila, endured an astounding number of amputations-a toe, the end of a finger, a foot, whole fingers, the other foot. What she lost in her physical being, she gained in her kindness and generosity. By the time she was told that the only way she could survive a little longer was the amputation of both hands, she was capable of giving those who loved her and herself a beautiful death instead. Inspired by her example of grace and awareness, Johnson and his family gave themselves one year on the coast of Scotland to live by Shelia's great, guiding principle: We don't get the days back. They wandered trails along windswept shores and past the stone ruins left by people who'd come and gone before. They played as characters from Harry Potter on deserted beaches. From their cottage, they watched an island lighthouse, counting the seconds between flashes to know exactly when to say ""goodnight"" so the lighthouse would answer with a wink.
The Desk on the Sea is a chronicle of progress toward one man's new life goal-to be a father, husband, and poet worthy of his mother's legacy. Sustained by an unwavering belief that words can help us fully occupy our lives, and that imagination and empathy can transform suffering into what John Keats called ""soul-making,"" Johnson offers readers a raw look at love and loss.
Jonathan Johnson's previous works include the poetry books May Is an Island; Mastodon, 80% Complete; and In the Land We Imagined Ourselves; the memoir Hannah and the Mountain; and the play Ode. His poems have been published widely in magazines, anthologized in Best American Poetry, and read on NPR.
