Requiem for David: Poems

"Survivors know only too well how grief is equal parts sorrow, rage, and guilt. Requiem for David is the heart's howl, a passage through mourning, a lesson ultimately in learning how to walk alongside pain with grace. We cannot avoid the dark night of the soul, but if we don't walk through it, we can never reach the light." - Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street

"Detail by razor-sharp detail, perception by vivid perception, recollection by haunting recollection, Patrick T. Reardon's Requiem for David gathers into the force of a cri de coeur." - Stuart Dybek, author of The Coast of Chicago

"In Requiem for David, Patrick T. Reardon grapples with the suicide of his brother David and with the painful childhood they shared as the two oldest of fourteen children of emotionally distant parents. Their closeness is clearly articulated in his poem "Your Death." "Your death/tore me/open like/the baby/was coming/out." This collection also chronicles the tight bond of affection that the fourteen siblings shared. Reardon also confronts the meaning and limitations of his Catholic faith. I share his doubts and confirmations from my limited association with Catholicism. Requiem for David, supplies insights into the intersections between the religious and the secular. His poetry reminds me of the great poet and Catholic priest, Daniel Berrigan. I highly recommend this volume to all who seek uncommon answers to difficult questions." - Haki R. Madhubuti, Ph.D., author of Liberation Narratives: New and Collected Poems 1966-2009 and YellowBlack: The First Twenty-One Years of a Poet's Life, A Memoir

"Patrick T. Reardon's Requiem for David is a tribute to a younger brother who died by his own hand, a balm to heal the hurt of loss and a return, however difficult, to beauty." - Achy Obejas, author of Memory Mambo