New Book Release
Help a loved one find comfort in life's final moments
Poems for the Dying is a tender collection of poetry that offers comfort, reflection, and quiet beauty in the face of life’s final transitions. This book speaks to caregivers, loved ones, and those yearning to offer comfort when words feel out of reach.
“I wish I had this book when my husband entered hospice. The nurse told us to read to him, but I didn’t know what to read. The truth is, the dying often don’t know what to do in those final days...and neither do we."
Zene Athans Hoult, widow, St Petersburg, FL
The story of
Irna and Sean Athans
During the final days of one of our parents’ lives, we found ourselves sitting quietly, not knowing what to say. The silence was heavy. Words felt too small, too inadequate.
So we turned to poetry.
We searched for poems that could carry the weight of goodbye…something tender, reverent, loving. But what we found was either too clinical, too abstract, or simply not enough. The moment required something more in terms of sensitivity.
So we began putting together our own.
Each day, we read aloud poems together, sharing simple, heartfelt verses that helped soothe the space between us. And in those quiet readings, our parent grew calm. The room grew peaceful. And when he rested, it felt like he was carried gently, in words.
Our hope is simple: that others rediscover the power of poetry during life’s most tender, sacred moments and that these words bring you peace, presence, and perhaps even a sense of grace.
— Irna & Sean
Founders, Poems for the Dying
Our first of many books
"The poems touch on important themes that surround the end-of-life experience for both the dying and for the family and friends who are present during the death. I do feel that these poems would be of interest and of use to readers who are going through this transition from life to death.”
