Nothing More to Lose

It happens this way …

For several years I had been playing with the idea of writing a series of poems based on the journey of a dear friend whose family escaped Hungary after the Nazi invasion in 1944. They spent the next seven years starving in Germany before finally arriving in the US in 1952. I had helped Therese Kolbert Dieringer write her autobiography in 2007, and her stories of terror, cruelty, and kindness haunted me ever since.

Then, this past July I focused on some ideas about Therese’s journey I had filed away and they began to shape themselves into a poem. I sent it to Therese and asked for her blessing — not only on this one poem, but on the idea of a chapbook based on some of the major events in her life. With tears in her eyes and voice, she said, “Yes,” and this chapbook was on its way.

The miracle to me is that I wrote the 25 poems in it in about six weeks. I never worked that fast before, but the material of Therese’s life was so compelling, that the poems wrote themselves. 

Now thanks to Shawn Aveningo Sanders and The Poetry Box, Nothing More Lose is available for a pre-publication sale price. Read more about the book and how to order it before December 1.

You would do me and Therese a great honor if you would consider reading her story via my poetry. You will be amazed and inspired. I was.