The Art of Dying

Much writing on the subject of death, dying, cancer, and grief is often sugar coated. That is understandable, considering the difficulty experienced by those dealing with it. However, in the process of grieving, it is essential to express, in often raw terms, how excruciating it is. Jere Truer, being both a therapist and a widower, worked through his grief via poetry and honesty, with the hope that these poems will validate others’ reality, give permission to bear down into grief and emerge on the other side of it.

Jere Truer is a poet, essayist, storyteller, and musician who made his living as a psychotherapist in private practice in Minneapolis. He currently teaches at Adler Graduate School. He was married for many years to Tamara Chaney Truer, who passed away in 2002. It was the onset of her breast cancer that first inspired a joint endeavor of her journal and his poetry about the path of healing. Alas, her death ended that project and Mr. Truer resumed the project on his own with this book. He re-married to Monica Schurtz and lives in Arizona.