Abstract

This All Works Well Up to a Point is a long poem about the accidental death of a brother and the experience of grief. The poem examines how family relationships are complicated by the accident and how the speaker initially retreats from and then confronts the changes death brings to her family. The poem's five sections explore the untrustworthy nature of memory, a family's history of accidental deaths, and the rich geological history of the landscape the speaker's family has inhabited for several generations. It is her meditation upon these subjects that provides a broad context in which to understand and accept the death. The long poem consists of lyric poems, prose blocks, lists, song lyrics, and dialogue presented in a non-chronological sequence.