Three Poems from Laura Lee Beasley

The Fall 2014 issue of Apple Valley Review has much to recommend it, but three poems by Laura Lee Beaseley featured in the online magazine took a stronghold in me. Each a short punch of a read hit hard to issues of illness and dying, but shared, not alone. “Our Dying” begins in its title alone to speak of the shared nature we feel in losing and loss of another. “Chemotherapy” brings the patient’s support person into the treatment: “And I felt it too, that sudden spark, / that familiar nervous thump.” The last, “St. Jude,” begins “I asked why you wore him / around your neck. / We’re not even Catholic.” By the close of the poem, the answer is clear. A sorrow-sweet trilogy of work, especially for those having been there, done this.