Cancer-stricken poet's verses provoke thought

This tragedy hasn't kept him from writing, though. His latest book is poetry, "Antidotes & Home Remedies” (Village Books Press, $12). He explains that the first half of the book "finds me wrestling, whether directly or indirectly, with my ongoing medical situation.”

The second half of the book, home remedies, is "filled with meditations that have arisen through journaling as I process that other part of my life where hospitals play a more limited role.”

One poem, "To Be Read at My Funeral,” lauds his wife and son and is particularly poignant in the verse about his daughter:

"Or to the beautiful daughter

who always made you laugh,

who went out of her way to hug you

every time, every single time,

you really needed it?”

After showing gratitude toward his many friends, he closes the poem with tributes to his dog and cat:

"Looking out upon a cold blustery

day, with the sweetest of all dogs

curled up by my feet

and the fattest of all cats

sitting on my lap, purring.”

A brief, whimsical poem, "Oral Roberts University,” goes like this:

"They offered the world

a prosperity gospel

then banked upon it.”

The poems are both funny and serious, and all accomplish what any poem should: They make a person think.

Chastain's memoir, "I Survived Cancer, But Never Won the Tour de France,” covers the first five years of his battle with cancer, which began when he was 37.

— Dennie Hall

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