Dying for Beginners - Softcover

Patrick Clary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 097776320X ISBN 13: 9780977763207

Publisher: Lost Borders Press, 2006

Synopsis

Zen masters describe "Beginner's Mind" as the mental state that can help us face the most severe challenges with flexibility, courage, and integrity. Since we are all destined to be beginners at dying, long-time hospice physician Patrick Clary invites us to embrace the virtues of this status in his new book of poetry, Dying for Beginners. Entering this aspect of our inner lives may help us as we seek to be present to others, to fully inhabit ourselves, and to make our own choices as we die.

A conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, Patrick Clary first faced issues of death and dying as a medic in an infantry unity. Dying for Beginners is not just a collection of poems, but a lyrical memoir of love, life and death in our time, from the Nevada desert to Southeast Asia, from Jonestown, Guyana to big city ER. Through more than 20 years of caring for gravely ill patients and their families Dr. Clary has come to believe that death can be as miraculous as birth, and that living fully is the best preparation for dying well. This is a book of poetry that can help you change your life.

About this title

About the Author:

Patrick L. Clary, MD, is Board Certified in Family Practice adn in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Educated at Georgetown College and later at Georgetown's School of Medicine, his first professional training was in poetry as a student of Roland Flint. Dying for Beginners grew out of discussions with Steven Foster and Meredith Little starting in 2003, when he led a group of hospice workers to Death Valley to participate in a Vision Fast. His poetry has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, CoEvolution Quarterly, Patient Care, Journal of Palliative Medicine, JAMA and Journal of Medical Humanities, as well as in anthologies, literary magazines and two previous collections: Notes for a Loveletter, and Old Friends. A conscientious objector on the basis of Quaker beliefs, he served as a medic with US Infantry Units in Vietnam 1969-70. He is past President of the New Hampshire Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and remains active in end-of-life care with roles in teaching, and advocacy.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lost Borders Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 097776320X
• ISBN 13: 9780977763207
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 86