SWEET SURVIVAL

Humor and horror punctuate the humdrum demands of a life-threatening chronic illness. In Sweet Survival, narrative and lyric poems and a scattering of prose poems exhibit the whimsy and grit a long-term incurable condition entails. Pamela Smith is in her fifth decade as an insulin-dependent diabetic. This collection shows how she has come to thrive. Resilience, even after setbacks, comes with the three C's she offers in "Prescription": cooperation, combat, and contemplation. These poems celebrate life, art, natural beauty, ministry, poetry, pets, humanity, and God. Sweet Survival is a short testament to her gladness for the color and valor of the long haul.