Deeply personal while completely universal, celebrated poet, essayist, and artist Bob McNeil explores the importance of love and hope in healing from the pandemic and society's endemic violence.
But perhaps most of all, Compositions on Compassion and Other Emotions explores our collective mortality. McNeil's latest collection was conceived when bedridden with a collapsed lung endangering his heart. Faced with the prospect of imminent death, "I culled some of my writing and illustrations in my mind. All in the hope of leaving some kind of testimonial behind."
As a result, Compositions on Compassion and Other Emotions is a stunning collection that urgently demonstrates both McNeil's creative range and his vision for a more peaceful, loving world. While holding a mirror up to himself and his possible fate, he also holds a mirror up to us all, exploring love and loss in all their complexity, contradictions, and beauty.
In the end, the book is not a requiem but a vision of a better world, one that McNeil holds onto with all his might.
"Those emotions provide nutrients to those who crave optimism. Throughout these times of countless tragedies, we must try to love others with ardor."
What people are saying:
"In Compositions on Compassion and Other Emotions, Bob McNeil draws upon his gifts in visual and literary art to unveil the treasure of years of intimate travels in his inner world. He offers the immense insight gained from trials beyond what many of us face, including the long stare into the eyes of death. He lifts himself so that the reader can see that our journey is not impossible. We can not only survive but thrive. The strength of his words and the beauty of his view of our collective struggles as descendants of enslaved Africans can help us transcend the legacy in the hellish ships that brought our ancestors to an unimaginable misery. In all of this, McNeil's gentle compassion is the song of a spirit that has seen the broad sweep of humanity, and how we are all held in the hope of what we can create in the depths of despair. This collection is a treasure for all of us."-Afaa M. Weaver, Fulbright Scholarship recipient and Author of A Fire in the Hills
"Compositions on Compassion and Other Emotions is an intellectual, poetic journey through the mind of a thinker. Bob McNeil navigates a runaway train through the neighborhood of our existence. The train stops at stations of love, violence, betrayal, slavery, and the inhuman and human condition. McNeil has a love for life and all living creatures. His destination is to a utopia that is not profitable to those who don't ride the train. The only fare to get on board is to wear your ultraviolet thinking cap so you can appreciate the sunshine in the middle of a dreary day."-Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets
