Railing at December (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798580646794)

An unreliable narrator talks of love lost and grief, in the midst of depression.

Railing at December is a collection of poems charting a slice through depression and grief after the accidental end of a marriage.

"No-one wants to be nursemaid
To a disintegrating spouse."
A story of a relationship lost, and a husband failing to deal with the loss, his part in the accidents that ended it, and hollowed out by there being no hope of making things right. His initial trite expressions of lovelorn self-pity, and the simplistic narrative he's built up - trying to justify both their actions in sophomoric appeal to the lost past - become shot through with inconvenient truths about their relationship and its fall, as the reality of loss and depression erode the façade he tries to maintain. A naïve view of their problems, and his determination to blame himself for those, shift along with the changing perspectives from them both, telling a story behind the simpler narrative he rails at... until it's clear how much he clung throughout their years to the promise of future happiness and the desperate belief that it could have worked, and how he cannot let go of what sustained him.

Railing at December is a cycle of poems charting a slice through depression and grief, against the contrasting abilities to move on. It follows a helical path over the same incessant memories, self-absorbed thoughts and protests, as it evolves gradually through the stages of Denial, Anger and Bargaining towards hints of Acceptance, illuminated by acknowledgement of joys and of failure - but only reluctantly of its permanence.

This edition also includes the short story The Group.