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Pillars: Poems of Loss and Remembrance
A Brief Introduction to PillarsThere’s a truth about writing not easily at some point in your literary career, you will write a piece you’ll have wished you’d never written. For some, this could come in the form of juvenilia which they consider inferior to their later work, yet for most, this rejection will come from the depths of a personal loss. It is the latter reason for which this collection exists, as, on February 18th, 2023, my father, John Sima, passed away while in succumbing to a brief yet aggressive onset of pancreatic cancer.
Shortly thereafter, my wife and I welcomed our second child into the world. Cradling our newborn son, I felt consumed by a maelstrom of literal life and questioning how; why; every little facet of what could’ve been. They say terminal patients experience a sense of impending doom, yet nothing prepares you to feel it in proxy. That tightness in your gut never wholly goes away, instead lingering for months on end. To express the true weight of losing my father would be to rewrite the very fabric of the Cosmos, yet that’s what I attempted to do.
Herein are fifty-one poems, all written over an eleven-month period. Of the subject matter, a word of this won’t be an easy read. A number of poems recount the raw emotion felt during these hospital visits. Some reflect on the fond memories the two of us shared together. Several were written to illustrate life going forward and milestones missed. A few draw parallels between my father’s passing and the grandchild he never got to meet firsthand.
Grief, after all, truly is a strange bedfellow to keep, one which we all must sleep beside at some fine juncture. In publishing this volume, it is my sincerest hope that I am honoring my father's legacy.
Jonathan Sima, 01/07/2025
Shortly thereafter, my wife and I welcomed our second child into the world. Cradling our newborn son, I felt consumed by a maelstrom of literal life and questioning how; why; every little facet of what could’ve been. They say terminal patients experience a sense of impending doom, yet nothing prepares you to feel it in proxy. That tightness in your gut never wholly goes away, instead lingering for months on end. To express the true weight of losing my father would be to rewrite the very fabric of the Cosmos, yet that’s what I attempted to do.
Herein are fifty-one poems, all written over an eleven-month period. Of the subject matter, a word of this won’t be an easy read. A number of poems recount the raw emotion felt during these hospital visits. Some reflect on the fond memories the two of us shared together. Several were written to illustrate life going forward and milestones missed. A few draw parallels between my father’s passing and the grandchild he never got to meet firsthand.
Grief, after all, truly is a strange bedfellow to keep, one which we all must sleep beside at some fine juncture. In publishing this volume, it is my sincerest hope that I am honoring my father's legacy.
Jonathan Sima, 01/07/2025
74 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 18, 2025
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