THE FACE OF EVERYTHING

Our faces express a wide range of emotions, but with masking restrictions during Covid, we all had to learn to listen more carefully and read emotions through people’s eyes. Some of the poems in this book directly express those feelings of isolation and it is a theme which influences the entire collection.

Reflecting on the notion of “the persistence of memory” and immortality, Cooper writes eloquently about his own memories as well as dreams. He writes, “It is almost as if dreams are storehouses for memories themselves, perhaps another form of immortality.”