Cancer Songs

A moving journal in verse, Cancer Songs is poet Richard Sommer’s response to his diagnosis and treatment for prostate cancer. Often, these are songs of newly discovered yearning, courage and awe; they are songs of refusal to go under, to surrender to the undertow of the disease.

There is no discounting the pain and suffering in the process, but as many victims of cancer know, there can also be a heightened intensity of perception, a kind of awakening. These poems celebrate that sharpening of awareness and the richness that it discovers; and celebrate, too, connections with others going through parallel ordeals. Sommer discovers hitherto unrealized resources in himself and a deepened appreciation of the embrace of surrounding life: the friendship and loyalty of dogs, the astonishing physical grace of cats, wildlife, music. And once recognized and acknowledged, the love and help of other people are sources of nourishment and complex delight, giving him the strength to accept pain and to express the immense gratitude that comes folded in adversity.