Songlines
A Novel
- Publisher
- HARP Publishing The People's Press
- Initial publish date
- Dec 2021
- Category
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781990137129
- Publish Date
- Dec 2021
- List Price
- $15.99
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 13 to 18
- Grade: 8 to 12
Description
About the authors
John Graham-Pole is a retired professor of pediatrics (Professor Emeritus, University of Florida). He has been a clinician, teacher and pioneer researcher in the field of childhood cancer for forty years. Educated in the United Kingdom, he co-founded the Center for Arts in Medicine (www.arts.ufl.edu) at the University of Florida, now among the world’s leading arts-and-health organizations. He is co-publisher of HARP The People’s Press (www.harppublishing.ca), which is dedicated to producing print and online publications on art and health for a diverse readership. John’s personal website is www. Johngrahampole.com and he can be found on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Excerpt: Songlines: A Novel (by (author) John Graham-Pole; cover design or artwork by Gillian McCulloch)
The wedding is set for two o’clock Saturday afternoon, and our two families take their time over
breakfast that morning. When I decide it’s time for me to prepare, Ann looks at Belinda, then at my
mom.
“Your mom and I are going to help you get ready, Ellen.”
I love the way the moms have already come together to arrange things. I know my dad will have been
thinking through exactly how to stage the giving away of his only daughter. I’m not even going to
speculate what he’s planning. I just know he will take charge once the moment comes to “lead me to
the altar.”
...
“I don’t think you’re s’posed to applaud till after it’s official,” I offer amidst laughter as the
clapping dies down. The choir break into Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” as Bill strums, Vern drums, and
my dad steps back to allow Jonah to move forward to my side. We grin happily around the room before
turning to each other to say our vows. We begin with a Rumi poem that we speak in unison.
The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you,
not knowing how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere,
they’re in each other all along.
Jonah stumbles with the words a couple of times but keeps going. We finish with the short vow we’ve
composed between us, this time speaking our words in turn.
Editorial Reviews
This sensitively crafted novel is written by a beloved oncologist who understands more about his
patients than could be learned from an MRI scan. Difficult issues— lesbian parents, gender roles,
use of morphine and cannabis, how to present bad news—are all covered. The treatment of the
couple’s intimate life is sensual and beautiful. Dr Graham-Pole knows that love is possible on the
cancer journey, that it can grow in pleasure, worth, intimacy and dignity.
- Rebecca Brown, M.Div., Spiritual Care and Death Educational Counselor; Creator and Founder of
Streetlight, University of Florida
Other titles by
Grace Notes on Nursing
Illness and the Art of Creative Self-Expression
Stories and exercise from the arts for those with illness and disability
Illness and the Art of Creative Expression
Healing by Intent
A Medical Memoir
Where Do the Young Ones Go To?
Poetry and Piano with John Graham-Pole & Cathy DeWitt
A Boy and His Soul
Blood Work
The People's Photo Album
A pictorial genealogy of the Antigonish Movement
