cover image Blue Peninsula: Essential Words for a Life of Loss and Change

Blue Peninsula: Essential Words for a Life of Loss and Change

Madge McKeithen, . . Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $22 (219pp) ISBN 978-0-374-11502-9

The stiffening of McKeithen's eldest son Ike's legs was the first symptom of an undiagnosable disease that would gradually debilitate the 14-year-old with ever-worsening maladies: brain atrophy, dementia and blood abnormalities (though he's still alive). McKeithen, a former teacher, researcher and editor, renders the first eight years of her life strained by Ike's illness; she watches Ike's physical pains increase and social abilities decline, worries over her other son's reaction, loses connections with friends and alters plans for Ike's future (her husband isn't mentioned much). More significantly, the book chronicles McKeithen's love affair with poetry. Each chapter opens with a poem from an eclectic range of bards to whom the author looks for answers: Paul Celan, Emily Dickinson, George McDonald, Walt Whitman. Some put words to emotions that feel indescribable; some provide guidance unattainable elsewhere; some propose hope in the most dire moments. Dissecting the poems as meticulously as she does her son's disease, McKeithen finds the multiplicity in poetry enables her to shift her perspective and approach reality from different angles. For instance, poetry's permission to elude a singular meaning comforts her anxiety over Ike's fate and excuses the lack of explanation for his illness. Readers will come away reminded of poetry's powerful ability to enlighten personal struggles. (May)