Now I Lay Me Down to Fight: A Poet Writes Her Way Through Cancer

Accentuated by the art of Jodi Hays, Katy’s words lead us through the realization of cancer, the experience of chemotherapy and a mastectomy, relentless rounds of radiation, the uncertainty of ongoing treatment, and what comes after survival.

She writes in resistance to sickness, of wrestling toward beauty:

Cancer is an overgrowth, a kudzu:

Tangling and strangling legitimate life.
Chemo is a killing, a burning out:
Burning down to ashy carbon, indiscriminately
But cancer, did you know that I am a poet?

Through it all, she shows what it means to struggle in a battered body and to pray to a God who is near to the broken. Join her in this consideration of mortality and witness her persisting trust in God’s unseen ways.

This title has been compiled by the Rabbit Room Press. You can see the full collection we carry here.