Madge McKeithen’s son Ike was fourteen years old when he began to have symptoms that seemed outside the parameters of typical growing pains. The medical community was at a loss to give him a de?nitive diagnosis, but the prognosis was undeniably a challenging one: over the next eight years, McKeithen watched Ike lose his ability to walk, to think clearly, and to live without continual care. A teacher and editor, she found new power in the antidote of poetry—not so much for comfort but for understanding, a way to distill particular truths through words that were by turns unflinching and soothing. In more than thirty succinct, wise chapters, Blue Peninsula collects dozens of illuminating poems, accompanied by McKeithen’s candid recollections of Ike’s unfolding illness.

McKeithen draws on wonderfully wide-ranging poets and lyricists, including Emily Dickinson, Paul Celan, Elizabeth Bishop, Bruce Springsteen, Marie Howe, Walt Whitman, and many others. Some chapters are reflections on friendships and family relationships in the context of a chronic and worsening illness. Some consider making peace with what life has dealt, and others value intentionally reworking it. McKeithen writes that her book “is not about resolution, but about connection.” In that spirit, Blue Peninsula is a unique work that does not provide easy solace, but aims to keep company.