Living with Coronavirus: Poems for Suffering, Grieving, Dying, and Living

This volume of poems addresses the human effects of the coronavirus pandemic including: prolonged illnesses, death, disruption of society, families, the work force, and economy. There are the accompanying emotional effects of grief, distressed orphaned children, over-stressed hospital staffs, anxieties over the shortage of health workers, medication, and other medical needs. There are also increased incidents of suicide and numerous other emotional entanglements and physical conditions for which a country, city, village, and family are often not prepared. At times such as these, language becomes extremely important in how we communicate with one another. How we face the realism and facts of the moment is vital for the health of a person and a nation. One notes especially the importance of the language of political leaders at a time of national and global suffering. The poems also address issues the pandemic has brought into the open, such as racism, the vulnerability of the poor, and the importance of governmental leadership in a national and worldwide crisis. People of faith emphasize the importance of a faith response to our common humanity amid suffering. Among many other questions, they ask: How shall we live with the enduring problem of pandemics that require changing of attitudes and an ongoing concern for others?

About the Author :
S T Kimbrough, Jr., holds a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary and is currently a Research Fellow of the Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, and he has taught on leading theological faculties in the US and abroad. He is author of the following books by Wipf and Stock: The Lyrical Theology of Charles Wesley; Radical Grace: Justice for the Poor and Marginalized; Participation in the Divine Nature in the Writings of Charles Wesley; May She Have a Word with You? Women as Models of How to Live in the Poems of Charles Wesley; and five books of poetry: Why Should a Child Be Born? Poems for Peace and Justice in the Middle East; Of Death and Grief: Poems for Healing and Renewal; A Seagull Lunch and Other Nature Poems (Save Our Planet!); Snowbound: Poems for Winter Days; and Rethinking Christmas.

Review :
"S T Kimbrough encompasses themes of compassion and empathy in these nuggets of wisdom and questioning in the form of poetry, and focuses our thoughts on self-growth as well as nurturing others as we navigate the new complexities of a world turned upside down by coronavirus. Grounded in Christian concepts of God's saving grace and our responsibility to our fellow human beings, Kimbrough urges the reader to seek higher ground when we look at our changing world." --Burton L. Scott, Professor of Neurology; Director, Huntington's Disease Society of America, Center of Excellence at Duke University "With the graceful simplicity of Wesley hymns, S T Kimbrough's poems bring us face to face with reality--a word that occurs often in this collection. Yet how can anything be face to face in our masked, no-contact Covid-19 world? S T responds to such questions with wry humor, as when he imagines social distancing with the aid of a six-foot selfie-stick. He also can lash out with righteous indignation at the global scope of governmental failure. But in his concluding poems, this man of faith opens before us a horizon of hope. In the face of death, we cannot expect to return to pre-Covid normalcy, but we can 'turn now to love, each one for all.'" --John H. Erickson, former Dean, St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary "S T Kimbrough is the epitome of what John Ciardi may have had in mind when he wrote, 'Poetry is itself a religion; it gives meaning to life.' S T's poetic gifts express faith, enlivening 'a no-contact world' with an unseen touch, bringing spiritual truth and gracious hope that will enable us to become the help that will overcome our own and others' suffering." --William B. Lawrence, Professor Emeritus of American Church History, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University