To care for a terminally ill loved one is to enter into an experience from which neither hope nor regret can free you. You must live through the dying, the duty and the devotion. You must survive the sorrow. In this poetry collection, Judy Croome seeks the spiritual heart within the tangible realities of caring for her dying husband. Sometimes brutal and frank, often tender and compassionate, both lamentation and praise song, these personal poems refuse to cut emotional corners and yet evoke a haunting sense of higher meaning. The poems in DROP BY DROP go beyond the particular to speak of the deepest longings and darkest fears of the care-giving experience, while remaining sharply aware of how love transcends loss.
Author
Judy Croome lives and writes in Johannesburg, South Africa. Judy loves cats, exploring the meaning of life, chocolate, cats, rainy days, ancient churches with their ancient graveyards, cats, meditation and solitude. Oh, and cats. Judy loves cats (who already appear to have discovered the meaning of life.) Croome's fiction and poetry books "the dust of hope (rune poems)" (Aztar Press, 2021); "Drop by Drop (poems of loss) (Aztar Press, 2020); "a stranger in a strange land" (Aztar Press, 2015); “The Weight of a Feather & Other Stories” (Aztar Press, 2013), “a Lamp at Midday” (Aztar Press, 2012) and “Dancing in the Shadows of Love” (Aztar Press, 2018, 2012, 2011) are available. Croome co-authored "Street Smart Taxpayers (Juta Law, 2017) with her late husband Dr. Beric Croome. Shortlisted in the African Writing Flash Fiction 2011 competition, Judy’s short stories, poems and articles have appeared in various magazines, anthologies and newspapers, such as The Sunday Times, The Huffington Post (USA) and the University of the Witwatersrand’s Itch Magazine. In 2021 and 2016, Judy was the poetry judge for the Writers2000 (South Africa) annual poetry competition and, in 2021, presented "The Gift of Poetry" to Writers2000 (South Africa). Join her on Instagram @judy_croome or visit her on www.judycroome.com Influences are Louise Erdrich, Witi Ihimaera, Rose Tremain, Osho,Toni Morrison, sundry poets such as WB Yeats, Walt Whitman, Rumi, Kabir, Robert Frost, John Keats, John Milton, William Wordsworth and others.
