Before the Grave
Before the Grave, a posthumous selection of poems by D.S. Poorman, is about the nature of control and freedom. It asks and answers the question, "How free are people really?" D.S. fought against being controlled in every aspect of his life, and this fight is reflected in poems about sexual abuse, alcoholism, recovery, lost loves, struggles to know one’s family, struggles with mental illness and battles with physical health, and his belief that society wished to regulate a person’s time, actions, thoughts and morals. Amidst this constraints, D.S. found freedom in nature. He especially loved rivers, plants, trees, and small animals. And he found freedom in night (2 a.m. dark), his mother’s love, meditation, and finally he found freedom in death.