The Corpses of the Future

In her first poetry collection in more than a decade, celebrated novelist and poet Lynn Crosbie creates a sustained and confessional record of her fathers illness. The Corpses of the Future is a sustained, confessional new collection of poems by Lynn Crosbie. It tells the story of her fathers battle with frontotemporal dementia and blindness following a stroke. The poems chronologically recount the poets conversations and time with her father and capture his still-astonishing means of communicating. The books title is his sardonic remark. Crosbie considers dementia to be a symbolic language, and as such similar to poetry. The authors attempts to understand her fathers distress, pain, fear, and brave love are assisted by her understanding of the negative capability required of readers of poetry. This is a harrowing book, with moments of joy and even levity. It is a collection of poetry about love, and loves persistence, even under the most unspeakable circumstances.