| Author/Contributor(s): | Ray, David |
| Publisher: | Wesleyan University Press |
| Date: | 05/01/1987 |
| Binding: | Paperback |
| Condition: | NEW |
When Sam Ray was killed at nineteen in an accident, his father began writing poetry dedicated to his memory. Sam's Book is a collection of these elegies and other poems written during Sam's lifetime. How should I mourn? David Ray asks. By recalling poignant events from the past he transcends his grief. He remembers Sam's first bath, a holy/Rite; tying the shoelaces of the little man; traveling to Greece, where Sam is the first.../to see the holy moon. With painful wit and regret he summons up the image of his son's blue Toyota, fastidiously transformed by Sam and his girlfriend into a love nest. Ray muses on what he taught Sam and what Sam taught him. Originally published in 1987, Sam's Book won the 1988 Maurice English Poetry Award.