Grief Songs: Poems of Love & Remembrance is not a panacea for pain, but a baptism in the waters of love that allows the author's memories of her beloved father to wash over her and her readers.

Immersion in these pieces provides an evocative experience that needs no familiarity with Gauffreau's situation or a family member's death to prove accessible.

"Poetry has no say in the matter" of death, Gauffreau acknowledges from the beginning. What it can do is capture those moments in time which have become the past...moments of realization, remembrance, and transformation that crystallize and hold experiences suspended, much as a once-living figure in amber that's represented for all time (or, in this case, as long as this celebration remains in print).

Color and black and white family photos personalize these words, emphasizing and capturing the presence of mothers, daughters, and family as they consider the lives and pasts of a mother and father who are now gone.

As much as grief is embedded in these poems, so are family connections, pivot points in the growth of a child that are captured in family portraits and poetic notes, and the interpersonal relationships that remain timeless.

What is anticipated to be a series of sorrows and grief thus becomes a celebration, as well, honoring those departed who have shaped the author's life in so many ways.

The child's-eye viewpoint incorporated into many of these works and the hindsight of wisdom and longing of the present day weave poem/stories that are succinct and vivid: "silly school project/cardboard box, green poster paint/George's time machine/trips through time at his command/if only he had kept it".

The result is a collection born from grief which ultimately rests firmly on a lifetime of memories and bittersweet blends of recollection and loss. By "indulging childhood foibles," these memories bring home, in free verse recollections, the entirety of the family system of support, love, and experience which the author and her readers can grasp as legacies of the past and touchstones for the present.

Poetry readers willing to walk the road of grief and family connections will find Grief Songs: Poems of Love & Remembrance a psychological treasure trove. It's a very accessible poetic tribute that brings with it something to hold onto-the memories and foundations of past family joys, large and small.

Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review