Publisher's Synopsis
"What a lovely ruthless and tender book this is! In the subtly-titled Where Do the Memories Go? Lauri Robertson tracks the path of her inner life as it meets the realities of the outer world, unflinching under the impacts of loss, grief, pain, death and the fear of death where she finds, or does not find, the needed words. A powerful centerpiece to the book, "The Grievous Body," articulates the scenes of an unspoken farewell to her dying mother-in-law and meditates on them. The elegy "For Dori," honoring a beloved friend, raises challenging questions for the poet herself: "in my heart, my aging heart, how inaccessible the story of being or not." Yet poetry enables these stories to end both ways: "I love ... every blistered apocryphal moment, /as tho' to breathe were life" and "Just say/ she died." To read this book is to join in understanding these ancient and sustaining truths"--.
