Soul and Bone

To lose a father or parent is universal. The ability to voice that grief is what is unique about the collection of poems in Soul and Bone. Her father’s life, beginning with his early years as a World War II bomber pilot, is laid out before the reader in the finest detail through simple experiences. We can examine our own grief through the poet’s personal allegory, yet taste the acrid emotion evoked through her words, and perhaps reconcile how it feels to be without a loved one who was with us from our beginning.

Soul and Bone is Susan Singer Kerschner’s second book to bring us through a very personal journey. Unlike a compilation of unrelated poems, this pointed focus on the theme of loss turns the ordinary into a poignant reaction to what is really churning in the heart and mind of the one left behind.