Published by KotaPress
   ISBN 1-929359-15-2
   Price: $15.00

Flash of Life
by Kara L.C. Jones

Paperback, August 1999,
2nd edition June 2002
ISBN 1-929359-01-2,
2nd edition 1-929359-15-2
Library of Congress
Control Number: 2002092667
Price: $15.00

This second edition includes the full, original narrative plus a 2002 Foreword, an updated Resource guide for finding online and offline bereavement support, and information about The Mrs. Duck Project and the new KotaPress membership program, Friends of Mrs. Duck.

The narrative is one family's experience of pregnancy and still-birth showing how the death of a child affects a woman, a marriage, a family, and a community. Included is a resource guide for finding online and off line support during the grieving and healing process.

If someone you know and love is enduring the death of a baby due to any cause, this can be a wonderful gift to honor the memory of that child. Perfect for those awkward holidays like Mothers/Fathers Day or the first Christmas after the death of the child-- honor that child and recognize that parent's grief with this gift.

This book and its author were featured on KUOW and NPR's show The Human Condition hosted by Megan Sukys. During this half hour feature, Megan talked with Kara about the creation process that went into writing Flash Of Life and about the grief and healing process that has taken place since the 1999 publication of this book. Several of the poems are featured as well.

If you missed the November 29th, 2001, broadcast, you can hear the program on-demand by clicking here.

Excerpt
At the shore

Dedicated to my son Dakota
born-still at full term on
March 11, 1999 at 4:47pm

When I wasn't looking
my son became the ocean shore,
he became that sound of rocks
shuffling around
surfing against one another
clanking like diamonds
being polished from their rough,
he became the ebb & flow
of grief, the tide inching up on me
then suddenly flooding me,
he became wet sand
grits in my hair
rubbing my scalp raw till
only my husband's tender hands
could pick out the pieces & tangles.

My son became a baby crab
frantically crawling sideways,
scared to death when the huge rock
was suddenly turned over,
burrowed furiously under another rock--
not my rock, not my womb,
but back to the Goddess' womb--
he became a sea anemone,
an enigma to me, sometimes
wide open and pulsing when
washed over with salt water,
my tears, sometimes
hard and closed
barely moving between tides.

When I wasn't looking
my son left me and took on
the world, went back to being
the Spirit who is so
much bigger than
his tiny body was,
went back to become
that sound of surf,
lapping the shore,
the ceaselessness of waves.

Author Bio
Kara L.C. Jones lives in Seattle where she and her husband perform their music and poetry as Night & Lady Hawk. Her poems have been published in journals such as PoetsWest, American Tanka, Poetry Motel, and Pandora's Hope Project; in anthologies such as Start With Leaves, Old Growth and Dreamscape; and online at New Works Review, Motherwood and A Father's Grief. Her book, Che-wa, was published by CJ Ink in January 1999. She has several titles out through KotaPress. She and her husband have recently started KotaPress as a memorial to their son.

Editor/Designer Bio
Harry "NightHawk" Jones has been a singer, composer, and song writer since Hector was a pup. You can often find him in various Seattle venues performing his music live with his poet wife. He also enjoys his work at KotaPress designing books and creating web sites--if you like what you see here, then you like his work. He and his wife started KotaPress in memory of their son Dakota.

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