by Maureen Owen (Author)

A hybrid work of poetry and prose journal entries. Maureen Owen's "caretaker's log" documents a mother's death and dying. A faithful transcription of amothers remembered life rendered with true emotion. "This magnificent work dwells in the struggle between death and dying," writes Fanny Howe. "The poet is the one who balances this weird difficulty. She is the caregiver keeping both alive. Through nights where days of dying begin with tissues, toothpicks, cries, pillows, sheets; the caregiver's offerings to the patient never quite work. The panic of hitting nightfall with its galloping horses, rodeos and racetracks, and the Southwest ranges try to stay as truthful to the mother as they are to the daughter transcribing them, until these darkest of lyrics lie in the realm of the divine."