Description
Praise for The Velocity of Love
““A brave love song for a child too early lost. Prepare for a roller coaster range of emotions. And witness the love. Always the love.—JULIA DAVIS, Director, Kiel Public Library ”
In these poems, Kathryn Gahl anticipates, celebrates, and commemorates a life, a very brief life, but one which nevertheless reverberates far beyond the reckoning of birthdays and calendars. The poems are intimate, rich with imagery, and though quite personal, wrestle with a very ancient and ongoing, and necessary human task—how to find words for joys and losses beyond words, or as one of the poems eloquently puts it, how “to let in dark / and bend it light.” —MAX GARLAND, Wisconsin Poet Laureate 2013-2014
Andy Towle –
After I read The Velocity of Love, I could see why it received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association. Gahl’s creative ability with words is extraordinary. I read this book all at once, at the end it was hard, but I was compelled to keep going. I need to know the end. There was no stopping once I began. Even thinking about it now, it’s hard.
But I will read it again, and again. Anyone reading The Velocity of Love will be deeply influenced by its emotional force.
Andy Towle
jack schachner –
I read The Velocity of Love on Friday night. I would not have been able to put it down even if I hadn’t been advised to read it from start to finish. It is one of the most amazing, best written and touching books I have ever read. I don’t know how Kathryn managed to put it together, but suspect it had a force of its own that needed to see the light of day. I hope creating it was a cathartic emotional experience for the author. I will read it many more times and share it with the friends I should be able to be with again soon before I put it into a bookcase. In my humble opinion, the collection of Kathryn’s poems is a masterpiece and should receive a number of prestigious awards. Unfortunately, I can’t give those to her myself or I would right now.
Laurie (verified owner) –
Kathryn’s poems express an almost indescribable, deep love a grandmother has for her grandchild, from the moment she knows he is coming into the world. You’ll feel the joy in welcoming this beautiful soul and getting to know him and the despair of losing him so suddenly. There is a longing for what could have been that will always be there, and a love that will survive the ages.
Joe Vanden Avond –
Though you may think you know the ending, you will fall in love anyway. I had my heart ripped out and was reminded that one ending isn’t The End.
Nancy Dickeman (verified owner) –
Kathryn Gahl’s The Velocity of Love takes the reader on an image-studded crossing through hope, joy and grief. Each poem presents as a step as we walk though a world of sweet clover, a toe in the sand, and devastation with an infant’s casket lowered. Gahl’s arresting imagery and sharp language yield a book that vibrates with beauty and tenacity. “To this day/I do not remember rising. /To this day I keep watch, on guard.” Rising to the night stars in some poems, The Velocity of Love carries us deep into realms of pain, courage, love and to the farthest corners of the universe — meteors, galaxies and firmaments. Throughout the journey, Gahl deftly keeps watch.
Ann (verified owner) –
Wow. The Velocity of Love. Just wow.
So many emotions. Reading Kathryn’s poetry, I can’t help but feel them all. I suppose that is the point of poetry…to help us feel. I love the build up of suspense from conception to birth to the very real sorrow. I didn’t expect to feel so much. I didn’t expect to be overwhelmed with compassion and empathy.
Kathryn has such a beautiful way with words. We are lucky that she shares her talents and gifts, as they build compassion in this world.
Ellen Lucey –
The book is a series of poems which form a narrative, a touching story of the loss of a grandson. Written in real time as events happened, the story begins with the wonder and joy of anticipation of a first grandchild. Then, through the delights of their interactions, we feel the love and special bond forming between grandmother and child. And finally we experience her devastation, as the author takes us along on a quest for peace. It is a beautiful journey that should not be missed.
Sharon Reilly (verified owner) –
The reader is not overcome by loss but instead is overcome by the language of love. A beautiful book that provides thoughtful perspective on the love a grandmother forever holds in her heart for a grandchild.
Gina Covelli –
This is a gorgeous book of poetry. Kathryn has such a powerful ability to inspire joy and grief and all emotions in between.
Linda T (verified owner) –
Thank you for sharing this story from anticipation, through, and past, to where you will land or have landed, with a more gentle intensity. As a grandparent, I understand the emotion, particularly our delight and expectation, of the stories that will become our grandchildren. The depth of this type of loss is shattering, but with grace and growth you carry us with you in a narrative which will never feel quite complete.
Georgia Ressmeyer (verified owner) –
Although comprised of nearly ninety separately-titled short poems, Kathryn Gahl’s new book, The Velocity of Love, can perhaps be best experienced as a single, multi-part poem read in one or two sittings. A steady current of concise images carries the reader from the disclosure of pregnancy through the birth of a beloved grandchild, his early childhood, the intense grief brought on by his untimely death, and finally the rebirth of hope and grace. Gahl’s hand is remarkably steady as it guides us along this beautiful, moving, life-affirming journey.
Leslee Granke –
Made my heart sing and break at the same time. It’s a treasure and testament of your love
Sandra –
One page after the other, Kathryn Gahl’s “The Velocity of Love” is sensitive and vivid and revealing. She fell in love with a little boy from the first second she knew of him. The book’s title capture Gahl’s extraordinary love and loss. This book is a pleasure and a gift to read.
Annette Grunseth –
In “The Velocity of Love” poet Kathyrn Gahl takes us on a journey of awe and miracle from gestation to birth, then tragedy, and finally acceptance. The moments in utero of “molecules terribly beautiful / growing around a pearl, a pulse / felt and heard” to the baby bumps of “olive’, “tomato”, “sweet potato”, “cantaloupe” emerge in the joy of a baby “raring to go”. Each concise poem offers the reader love-filled word pictures imagining the “boy story” filled with “wheels and toys” and advice and marvel from a doting “oma”. The unexpected turn is heart-wrenching, unimaginable, yet still imagining what would have been, and with hope still is — “a star…a meteor…your own galaxy.”
Sandra H, (verified owner) –
Although I have never experienced the loss and pain of losing a child, as a mother, I can closely relate to the anticipation of a new birth and the deep love that develops. Through Kathryn’s poems, one can “re-live” those feelings. It is, perhaps, that deep love that gave Kathryn the ability, talent and strength to share her beautiful poems as the story unfolds.
David McCreanor (verified owner) –
I am into, “less is more” and that is definitely Kathryn’s approach in this poetry volume. Great depth with so few words. Impressive, indeed!
I loaned my copy of, “The Velocity of Love” to a friend whom I thought would benefit from it and she told me she did not stop reading it until she got three-fourths of the way through.
Mary Kay York (verified owner) –
The Velocity of Love is a testimony of unconditional love by a mother and grandmother. The beauty and challenges of both of the roles is emotional and soul searching. Heartfelt love is so deep! Velocity of Love really warmed my heart!!!
Morgan (verified owner) –
It is often this matrix of a world convinces us to pass our emotions by, to bury them in the shadow, never to return and I am so happy to say this collection is anything but that. It is page after page of observation and strength, something to be commended…it isn’t easy to feel and then heal but it is the way. Thank you for sharing!
“Every feeling
I can feel
I will/I shall/I can/ I must”
Emilie Lindemann (verified owner) –
Such heartfelt, powerful emotion in this exquisite collection that speaks to the human experiences of loss, unlimited love, and more. Gahl’s poems use celestial imagery and the images of daily life and its blue tricycles and cereal with strawberries to celebrate and mourn a life. These poems marvel at the miracle of a new life and create a portal from grandmother to grandchild, even in the beyond. The poems in Gahl’s new collection will stick with you long after reading, inviting you to “smell the intergalactic lilacs.”
Craig Blumer –
How impressed I am with Kathryn’s writings. I found the real-time nature of her poems, powerful and vivid in catching moments of life. The images, reactions, descriptions were clear and rang true whether I experienced similar or different things. I appreciated the gentleness of her poems, even when heart-rending, there never was an effort to make me feel some way, simply honesty. I read very little poetry, but the accessibility of The Velocity of Love is an encouragement to do more.
Mary Ann Schnur (verified owner) –
I loved the arc of the star on each page and am amazed by this author’s ability with words. I wondered how it feels for her to hold her words in such a beautiful vessel. I got to page 42 and tears began to flow and I had to stop as I felt both the love and the loss. I finished it the next day, seeing how from so much sorrow comes love and peace. The love leaves the page by osmosis and resides in the reader’s heart.
JEAN BIEGUN (verified owner) –
Every grief worker should have this book to help people go through their deepest pain and then rise. I initially bought this book as a collection of fine poetry woven together in a coherent narrative. However, I discovered a beautiful story of the power of love maintained even through the darkest of shadows.
These poems all are elegant, a testimony to the author’s long list of prestigious publications and awards across genres. But this collection is special because it is the journey of her soul written in real-time: the before, during, and after. Intimate, passionate, tender, THE VELOCITY OF LOVE will transform the reader as it has the writer. Robert Frost measured a poem this way: “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” He would have valued Gahl’s poems.
All grief workers should have this book on their shelves to help usher individuals through their dark nights. Because the author continues to travel that path from deep shadow to light through the power of love, this collection is a proven manual for grief and hospice counselors and all who struggle with heart-wrenching loss.
Kathryn (verified owner) –
Kathryn Gahl pours her whole heart into this book. She has bravely invited the public into her personal story of joy, tragedy, grief, and transformative love. Each poem, a treasure.
Thom Singleton (verified owner) –
I read Kathryn’s book, “The Velocity of Love,” in one sitting. She knows something about love. Her heart is evident on every page.
Katie Guns (verified owner) –
A heartbreaking story about grief, love and finding peace. The Velocity of Love is very approachable and relatable, which may very well be a source of this book’s power.