Remnants of a Life: Poems

In this volume, Duane L. Herrmann invites readers to follow him across the rolling plains and dark roads of Kansas, encountering creatures wild, tame, or something in between. One of the beasts in the book, the “incognitum,” is long extinct. Most are more familiar – rabbits, birds, and even mosquitoes – but seen from new perspectives. The most frightening creatures in these poems, though, are human.

Herrmann wrote some of the poems after his mother’s death, as a way to process that experience. Others were written to document and re-examine earlier incidents from that fraught relationship. They are shared here in hopes that those with similar experiences might be reassured they are not alone.

Remnants of a Life explores the shadows we usually keep hidden, as well as the beauty of the natural world and life on the plains. With a view of prairie grass and endless sky as its backdrop, the book is ultimately hopeful: a testament to the power of words to help us survive difficulties, and a reminder that spring always returns.

“One of the most recognized poets in Kansas.” ~ Midwest Quarterly

[Herrmann’s collection, Ichnographical:173] “demands to be savored. All those poems, together, pack so many emotional wallops—and they are tasty and satisfying, even the ones that burn—and they need respectful pacing between them.” ~ Anne Hawkins, 2016 Kansas Humanities Council scholar