HISTORY OF HANDS

In the months before David Citino was lost to us, he shared his hopes regarding how readers might greet the collection of poems forming A History of Hands. As a whole, he wrote, he intended the poems to show an evolution in his work through movement "from a golden-tinged, elegiac portrayal of past time to a more realistic confrontation with the starker `real world.'" At the time few people knew what David was facing: that, in addition to the multiple sclerosis he had battled for years, he was also now facing leukemia.

In light of this reality there is increased strength and poignancy in poems such as "He's Feeling a Little Sorry," musing on the ways in which "we measure, treasure time, find in fields of weed and trash the tiny flowers of joy," and "The River of Sclerosis," reflecting on life between two powerful rivers and our lifelong desire to prove the saying wrong and step into the same river twice. Works such as "Venetian Gold, Umbrian Blue" demonstrate David's ability to measure and treasure, and pieces such as "Real Man Strikes Out Over the Phone" show a sense of humor that was never lost to his confrontation with the starker real world. As a collection, A History of Hands testifies to David's poetic skills, intelligence, wit, and strength, and, like him, it is greater than the sum of its parts.