Not Sleep, Deeper: Notes on Aging & Living Alone

By Geoff Peterson

Not Sleep, Deeper deals with confronting time alone after the latest surgery and aging has indeed set in. Geoff Peterson marks the crawl of days with therapy, fantasy, and sleep broken by sudden alarms sudden alarms. While watching his long-distance relationship with the iconic Margot spiral out of control, the client-patient begins to sense that we never live anywhere but where we areand thats when death begins.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524624231

Geoff Peterson

Born just after World War II, Peterson inherited his mother's nervous system and went on to memorize and perform poetry in a lyric vein for family and card parties. Raised Catholic, the boy learned the value of dreams, visions, and the soothing aspects of prayer in unison. He later earned degrees in Literature and Writing at Eastern Washington University, and served as poetry editor for Willow Springs Magazine. With the publication of his first novel in 1989, Peterson turned his back on mainstream publishing and has not looked back. Since 2007 he has published nearly thirty books of poetry and fiction. He lives in the Southwest and still gets around.

Book preview

The Literature of Missing Persons

Fiction:

Medicine Dog

Bad Trades

The Greyhound Bardo

Poetry:

Cordes Junction

Hecho en Mexico

Cold Reading

Crazy Stairs

Drama & Desire

Cine Bahia: The Suicide Codex

Fiery Messengers

She Dropped Me in the Middle of Nowhere and other poems

Dark is My Therapy

Tucumcari (with Megan Collins)

The Perry Square Gospels

Penance

punto: poems with time running out

horrible intimacies

The Moira Cycle: Surviving the Last Poems

All titles by Geoff Peterson are available online, or through your local bookseller.

Not Sleep, Deeper

Where are those who were in this world before us? Go to the cemetery and look at them.

—Anon. 12th c.

AuthorHouse™

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Phone: [phone]

©

2016 Geoff Peterson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

In this work the names of the characters have been changed; everything else remains as true and won’t go away. Any dialogue in these poems is strictly the product of the author’s imagination.

Copyright Cover photos My Desert Rooms 2016 Geoff Peterson

Published by AuthorHouse 08/22/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-2424-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-2423-1 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

the texts

Dedication: Robert Lax

Introduction: A Case for Refuge

Wide Angle Shot

The Procedure

Post-Op

Not Sleep, Deeper

Divine Office

Past Midnight

Itinerary

A Word of Warning

About Books

About Books, etc.

Words & Sentences

The Magic Mountain

My Last Book

Exchange of Vows

Eros

The Man from Mesquite

Torpedoed

Wound Telling

Evening News

My Desert Fathers

Exits

The Shadow Half

Form 1099

Check-up

Sunset Highway

Operators Are Standing By

Alone, with Remote

Toilet Talk

Devotion

Slowing Down

Chance Encounter

Baseline

The Anatomy of Practice

Refuse

At the Tucson VA

Special Occasions

Valentine’s Eve Massacre

Furious Texts

Snatches

2nd Thoughts

How I Get Over Women

Longing w/o Borders

Something I hadn’t told her but would

Closure

Western Swing

Larry’s Auto

The Set-Up

On Hearing My Favorite Artist

Bank Statement

My Aunt’s Relics

Dust Covers Everything

VA Referrals

Jokester

REM

Aesthetics

Imago mortis

My Desert Rooms

Skeleton Key

My Living Will

Margot’s Courier

8-Ball

Homebody

West Coast, 2 p.m.

After Hours Radio

No Context

Morgue Matters

Reading in Bed

Interview with My Cremation Specialist

Main Event

Flatlining

Dementia

Photo: I Cover the Waterfront (2005)

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