Well Beyond the Grace Period

The title collection comprises 28 poems chronicling the descent of a non-believer through debility towards death. The early few poems are short, simple, and light. Later ones are longer and deal with the drudgery of clearing a house, adapting to the constraints of a retirement home, odd encounters there, love and sex in age, and seeing one’s life in summary–always with flashes of wit.

Later in the book there is an assemblage of poems, featuring 12 glimpses at a process of divorce that is basically modern and amicable–but troubling nonetheless. The final piece is a schoolboy’s loving recollection of Sundays spent making music with down-and-out elders possessed of lovely souls. Reading this brief memoir first opens the heart to Mr. DeVore’s poetry.