JUSTIN BOHARDT

Twenty-six Suicides

A Collection of Poetry

 

Pain. Grief. Sacrifice. Honor. Necessity. Love.

Every suicide has its reason.

Every suicide has its story. 

 

The ending of one’s life can be the apex of grief for the family of the departed while a release from the ceaseless pull of torment’s unyielding grasp for the victim. It can be a merciful balm or an eternal march to the gallows; a grandiose gesture or an ill-fated martyrdom; an instantaneous conclusion or the terminal destination of a fated path.

 

In his third released collection of poetry, Justin Bohardt explores in a cycle of twenty-five poems the reasons and the rationales, the pathos and the suffering, the rituals and the rites, and the necessity and the love that goes into one making a decision to end their own existence.

 

A twenty-sixth poem was added when a family member tried to commit suicide while this book was being completed, and poetry became a necessary catharsis.

 

This collection was written in the hope that the bereaved might find some solace and commiseration, that the desperate might find some semblance of hope, and that those of struggling minds whose thoughts have led them to the cusp of this dark escape might remember that they are not alone.