A Grim Week

It’s been an emotionally grim week. My nephew, Kyle Knapp, lost his life in a house fire. He had been living in the home I grew up in. I went back for the funeral service on Saturday and to be with my sister and her family. Try to find needed closure. But I soon realized it’s not to be, not yet, even though Kyle has told me, 'It’s ok, Uncle David.' It just hurts too damn much. Still, I can see the road ahead and what I need to do for him.

You see, Kyle sent me dozens of poems and several short stories over the last year following the release of Pluvial Gardens, and while the first collection of poetry is striking, what follows is ten-fold beyond. Kyle had begun digging deeper within himself and pulled up astonishing insight from his soul. I can’t even imagine where his art would have taken him as his writing continued to season over the next decade.

Now it’s my turn do justice to Kyle’s writing and get the next collection of poems out. I’m going to take my time and get it right. Kyle had said that having the Pluvial Gardens eBook published was the highlight of his life. That does my heart good. I want to get Gardens out in paperback very soon (something he had wanted) and begin doing inventory on just how much of a body of work Kyle left behind. I’ve found the first eight chapters of a novel he had emailed to me, unfortunately, I think the rest has been lost. But it’s a novel we had talked about, and maybe in time I can finish it for him.

I wish you had known Kyle. He was a wonderful, caring human being. Yes, there were times he was difficult, but he always came back to say, “Sorry, David.” It saddens me he didn’t conquer his alcoholism, but he touches on that in the unreleased poetry, and maybe, just maybe, it will help someone else. I plan to dedicate a significant portion of the sales of all his books to an organization that my sister feels Kyle would have wanted.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Kyle and I have some work to do.