A Constellation of Half-Lives

Synopsis

You. Is A Collection Of Second-person Poems That Attempt To Reconcile The Crisis Of Living On A Collapsing Planet With The Unreasonable Joy Of Loving And The Pleasure Of Being Alive. Seema Reza Founded An Award-winning Arts Program In Two Military Hospitals And You. Began As A Cycle Of Poems Written To Women Who Have Lost Children In Iraq And Afghanistan As A Result Of The United States Military's Ongoing Campaigns In Those Regions. Women Who Are Not Different From Her, Though They And Their Children Are Caught In The Crossfire Differently. All Day, She Pleads With People Struggling With The Ripple Effects Of Trauma And Abuse--isolation, Suicidal Ideation, Addiction, Grief, And Shame--to Go On Living And Working, To Find Connection And Purpose, To Honor And Forgive Themselves. But Reza Is Not So Sure. She Doesn't Know If Motherhood Or Love Or The Beauty Of This World Outweigh Its Inconveniences And Risk. You. Is Her Effort To Keep Rising Each Morning Against The Odds, Despite The Absolute Certainty That The Worst Thing Has Not Yet Happened. Around The World People Strive For Life Even As Terrible Things Befall Them, Even As There Is No Clear Path Out. They Endure And Inflict Violence And Cruelty And Torture, Just To Scrape By In A Wrecked World, Panning For The Tiny Points Of Light--warmth, Connection, Faint Threads Of Purpose. Loss Looms On The Horizon, And Yet We Brush Our Hair, Spread Lipstick Over Our Lips, Tie Our Shoelaces Tight And Throw Our Heads Back In Laughter. We Dance And Sing And Climb Mountains And Fall In Love And Drink Coffee And Make And Break Promises. We Hold Our Children's Hands And Look Both Ways And Curl Our Bodies Around One Another And The Sea Levels Climb And The Bombs Get Bigger. Is This Obtuse? Is It Avoidance Or Denial Or Is It Faith? Is It Dangerous Or Is It Necessary? You. Is Heartbreaking And Ordinary And Funny And A Little Hopeful. It's An Epistle And An Elegy, A Love Letter To Loss And A Confession Of Joy.