Publisher's Note:
Forever the Last Time, the second book of poetry by Jim Slominski, chronicles the lives affected by the illness of the poet's oldest child, Jake. With a depth of feeling that is awe-inspiring, and using an unabashedly rural setting, Slominski writes of family and work, centering his poems in and around the home. The stress that the shadow of the child's impending death puts on the family is devastating, an effect which the author imparts to the reader in totally believable, personal lyrics. Yet, the every-day life of the family goes forward, and the poet celebrates both the grief and joy in each day, in spite of the knowledge that the last time is forever hovering.

-contains poems from 2001 CBC Literary Awards

Publisher's Note:
In this outstanding first book, Jim Slominski combines a clarity of perception with a meditative understanding of the natural world and human relationships. His original and intimate voice makes every poem resonate, for example in drawing the restlessness of Nature: "Featherhead seeds / absorb the clouds / dream about a forgotten river / Canada thistle and bullrushes race aimlessly along a ditch." Like the photographer "who needs to capture what we all change from," Slominski watches his son fly a kite: "how light his string. / He flies away from a world so thick and heavy / that even the air slows him down." Yet death is here as well and we grapple with the wisdom of children and the fears of adulthood: "How will I forever embrace all the things you will ever touch?" In the end it is the poetry which elevates us, as when an exhausted kite is rolled up, "Jake carries it home, and the whole sky swims under his arm."