The review by Dana Wilde (” ‘Hummingbird’ emotions go from breezy to troubled,” June 6) is an accurate account of my book, “Hummingbird,” just as the book is an accurate expression of my life. The light and dark of it. To put pain into words and shape it into poetry is for me redemptive. I have struggled with depression all my life. I was abused as a child and survived it. I have seen a lot of suffering in myself and others. I shape it into poems. Perhaps those who suffered similar struggles might be able to relate to this. Some of the feedback I’ve gotten suggests this. The book is what it is. Light and dark and irony. Life entails suffering and death and occasional respite and that is an existential fact for all of us.

Thank you for even taking the time to notice my little book and then taking further time to review it. The review, though, lacked empathy for the narrator’s portrayal of that existential dilemma and that was my failure to project that into the poems. I will try to do this better in the future. Thank you again for the review.

 

James P. Breslin

Winslow