The poems in this collection, all of which were written after her husband’s death on a wild river in Guatemala, reflect the two traditions that helped Carol Flake Chapman most in her process of grieving and recovery: the New Orleans jazz funeral and the Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, celebrated in Mexico. In both traditions, the lives of the departed inspire not only grief but joy in their memory. Mourning, of course, doesn’t cease with a ritual, but in ritual and ceremony, she found, we can set markers along our pilgrimage.

Many of the poems have been written as elegies, particularly for her husband and for her mother. And for her beloved departed animals, including dogs and horses. But she has also included a number of unlikely subjects to commemorate, including trees and even a space exploration robot that expired on Mars. From her native American heritage, her notion of sentient beings is always expanding. There are no small losses, no small deaths, she writes as they are all part of the great mystery.

One year she was joined by friends in creating a special altar for the Day of the Dead in honor of the extinct animals that have departed the earth. And so she began to think of how all of us who are grieving might create an altar without limits that will encompass the very earth and celebrate those we have lost even as we mourn them.