Book #23 of 2020: Death Sentences by Toby Olson

A few years ago Toby Olson released a beautiful memoir of his wife and her prolonged deterioration via Alzheimer's. Now he has written a vivid and potent examination of her absence from his life. Death Sentences is a series of poems about what is left to him since her death. Reminiscences blend with current settings, Miriam physically present in past tense and solely in memory now. These are evocative and powerful short musings on loss and grief and aging alone. As with his earlier work, jazz standards often serve as thematic backdrop. Toby's imagination and gifts remain in full flourish, and I feel the hurt in this volume but at the same time note its pristine elegance and beauty.