Pamela Kruskal

The smallest of things Pamela Kruskal

This poetry anthology, written over 8 years, reflects the author's 24 years she lived during Apartheid's fury in South Africa, allusions of suppressed childhood trauma, the toll of her immigration to the USA and most significantly, her mêlée with the chronic cognitive and other challenges of CNS Lupus, that plagued without official diagnosis during the first 6 years of writing this work. Much of her poetry exposes a clearly altered mind struggling with depression, anxiety and the unknown. The author untangles the layers of her world through therapy sessions, dreams and flashbacks. As the diagnosis of CNS Lupus begins to resonate, the author realizes that her mind, her most prized possession, is the very thing she stands to lose. There is a notable calm that charges her later work. Although her life is Lupus-altered and her passion for writing must surely fade, she humbly shares her work in pages that clinch her discourse with memory, thoughts and dreams, her world spinning in both beauty and chaos, her essential ascent from despair to acceptance, trust and hope.