Something Like Forgiveness

by Rebecca Schumejda, Hosho McCreesh (Artist)

This full-color poetry book by Rebecca Schumejda features a single long-form poem about the incarceration of her brother and its rippling effects across their family. Includes artworks by Hosho McCreesh. "How do you forgive the unforgivable? This is the question Rebecca Schumejda wrestles with, on a grand scale, in this emotionally taut, tightly structured, intensely personal poem. Using a slow reveal, the poet dispenses morsels of information, with regard to the nature of the crime, and her struggles with coping with her love for her brother who committed it and, finally, the heinous nature of what he did, until we learn, as well, what happened. She asks, among the many effective refrains, “What if you had died that night?” Somehow life could have been easier if he had. Maybe. I know how she feels. I’ve been different relative, similar crime. Something Like Forgiveness is not simply a must read, it is an experience."
—Alan Catlin, poet, editor
Misfit Magazine
Rebecca Schumejda is the author of several full-length ollections including Falling Forward (sunnyoutside press), Cadillac Men (NYQ Books), Waiting at the Dead End Diner (Bottom Dog Press) and most recently Our One-Way Street (NYQ Books). She is the co-editor at Trailer Park Quarterly. She received her MA in Poetics from San Francisco State University and her BA from SUNY New Paltz. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her family. You can find her online rebecca-schumejda.com Hosho McCreesh is currently writing, painting, and making stuff in the gypsum & caliche badlands of the American Southwest. His work has appeared widely in print, audio, & online. He can be found at www.hoshomccreesh.com

124 pages, Paperback

Published June 3, 2019

About the author

Rebecca Schumejda lives, teaches, and writes in New York's Hudson Valley. She is the author of "Falling Forward" (sunnyoutside press, 2009) and several chapbooks. Her new book "Cadillac Men" was just release from New York Quarterly Books in November and is a poetic memoir about a pool hall she co-owned. For more information: www.rebeccaschumejda.com

Reviews

[Dave Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book about grief and crime and responsibility and learning to cope with all of it. I can't remember the last time I read a poem--and this whole book is one poem--that made me feel so intensely. Life is so terrible and beautiful. This book shows that and so much more.