Our Last Walk: Using Poetry for Grieving and Remembering Our Pets

by Louis Hoffman (Editor), Michael Moats (Editor), Tom Greening (Editor)

Overview

Losing a pet is a deeply painful experience, yet often misunderstood by many who see the beloved pet as "Just a pet." Our Last Walk: Using Poetry for Grieving and Remembering Our Pets is a powerful resource for those experiencing pet loss and those who are supporting others who have lost a pet. Filled with powerful, authentic poems expressing loss, Our Last Walk helps the grieving person find words for their loss while sharing in the experience of others who have traversed that same painful journey. More than a book of tears, Our Last Walk also helps people to remember their beloved pet, preserving the love and memories of relationship. Through this book, many will find encouragement, healing, and hope.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781939686152
Publisher:	University Professors Press
Publication date:	10/31/2016
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Louis Hoffman, PhD, is a faculty member at Saybrook University. Our Last Walk is his eleventh book, and his fourth book in the Poetry, Healing, and Growth series. He has also published numerous journal articles and book chapters. He is a past president of the Society for Humanistic Psychology and is currently the president of the Rocky Mountain Humanistic Counseling and Psychological Association. Dr. Hoffman has been recognized as a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Society for Humanistic Psychology, the Society for the Study of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, and APA Division 52 (International Psychology). He serves on the board of The Humanitarian Alliance and The Coalition for Compassion and Action as well as on the board of editors for several journals. In addition to his scholarly work, Dr. Hoffman maintains a small private practice in Colorado Springs. He is a husband, father, and avid dog lover residing in the beautiful mountains of Colorado.

Michael Moats, PsyD, is a private-practice clinical psychologist who primarily focuses on grief and trauma. With research interests in cross-cultural investigation of lessons through loss; experience and appreciation for working with hospice clients and their families; daily client engagement; experience with personal loss; as well as being an animal lover (propensity toward dogs), this project was a natural fit. Dr. Moats has also authored book chapters, articles, poems, and another book, Capturing Shadows.

Tom Greening, PhD, began writing poetry 70 years ago and has been unable to stop, despite being a busy psychotherapist in the same office for 58 years, editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology for decades, and professor at Saybrook, Pepperdine, and UCLA. An admirer of rhyming couplets by Shakespeare, Chaucer, Frost, Pope, Ogden Nash, etc., he has also occasionally been caught writing blank verse. A second, enlarged edition of his Poems For and About Elders is in press, as is an illustrated collection for children titled About Some Animals, endorsed by his dachshund. His collection, Words Against the Void, did not fill it, so a second edition is in press.

Editorial Reviews

What an incredible book! Our Last Walk is a book I find I cannot put down. The captivation was not only because I had recently lost a "dog love of my life," but, I found, these authors somehow knew me and my relationship with Taylor as if they had spent hours interviewing me. They know that remembering is the essential part of both grieving and healing and what better way to remember than to reach down into your deepest self and be creative. While most of us are certainly not poets, it is clear that does not matter. What does matter is that we own those key emotional words, thoughts, and expressions that are tied to our lost relationship. They are in us. The therapy comes when we invest the time to find them and make them sing what our soul is trying to say. We are the only ones that can tap those expressions and that kick starts healing. This expression starts something else also: our meager attempt at writing a poem about our incredible relationship ignites, enrichens, and somehow enlivens what we thought was gone. Those very words, from deep within us, are our undefinable connection with our sweet animal life that left us, holding only their collar, far too soon. There is no better way to grieve, heal, and honor their life. I cannot thank Drs. Louis Hoffman, Michael Moats, and Tom Greening, enough. Jim Humphreys, DVM Veterinarian, Home with Dignity

What an incredible book!Our Last Walk is a book I find I cannot put down.The captivation was not only because I had recently lost a "dog love of my life," but, I found, these authors somehow knew me and my relationship with Taylor as if they had spent hours interviewing me. They know that remembering is the essential part of both grieving and healing and what better way to remember than to reach down into your deepest self and be creative. While most of us are certainly not poets, it is clear that does not matter. What does matter is that we own those key emotional words, thoughts, and expressions that are tied to our lost relationship.They are in us.The therapy comes when we invest the time to find them and make them sing what our soul is trying to say. We are the only ones that can tap those expressions and that kick starts healing. This expression starts something else also: our meager attempt at writing a poem about our incredible relationship ignites, enrichens, and somehow enlivens what we thought was gone.Those very words, from deep within us, are our undefinable connection with our sweet animal life that left us, holding only their collar, far too soon. There is no better way to grieve, heal, and honor their life. I cannot thank Drs.Louis Hoffman, Michael Moats, and Tom Greening, enough. Jim Humphreys, DVM Veterinarian, Home with Dignity"

From the Publisher