Dying for Beginners

Poems by Patrick Clary

Patrick Clary, his compassion combined with fierce attention, sees the dying and schools his own center to make each beginner’s journey into death as gentle as may be. Quaker, Buddhist, Vision Quester, he has condensed his diverse experiences into a book of poetry suitable for mortals, or anyone who loves them. — Donald Hall

The poems beckon us to silence as they give voice to what might fill that silence. They whisk us away from the teeming world by lighting our way back into that same world. They answer the questions we never thought to ask, and question the answers we never thought to doubt. And they end with beginning. — Monica Wood

A skillful physician who practices the therapeutic power of words and a poet whose words lay bare mortal truths, as if performing an exploratory laparotomy of the human condition. — Ira Byock

After years of reading Dr. Clary’s poems to patients and pedestrians, finally, I can carry his work to everyone whose path will be enriched by his rare, articulate and compassionate company. — Virginia Lynn Fry