This Death by Drowning - Tapa dura

"Kloefkorn writes prose with pensive grace, one thought flowing into another as water flows into rivers, lakes, and oceans that become his metaphors for the world's connectedness. This is a quirky, funny, moving memoir full of unforgettable characters; readers will not have seen its like before and shouldn't expect to again."--Library Journal. "An elegant, moving little book ... that reflects the author's fascination and intense personal involvement with waters big and small, from farm ponds to the South Pacific. The author writes of his youthful wonder at the family's cistern; of watching his grandmother at a washtub in the backyard, 'washing her long white hair in rainwater'; of his and a paraplegic friend's baptism in Shannon's Creek, performed by a preacher whose sermons were like 'Kansas waterways, neither deep nor wide.' Water drenches these pages, written about in a style that both immerses and quenches."--Kirkus. "Is there any human corner left to illuminate? To surprise? Absolutely, as these wondrous recollections by poet Kloefkorn prove. This slim volume is filled with provocative perceptions garnered from daily life... After the last line, readers will turn back to page one and start again, slowly."--Publisher's Weekly. "Sad, humorous, whimsical, sentimental, and of course poetic, these memoirs celebrate the profundity of life and death."--Booklist.

A professor emeritus of English at Nebraska Wesleyan University, William Kloefkorn is Nebraska's state poet. He is the author of many volumes of poetry, among them "Burning the Hymnal" and "Going Out, Coming Back".