THIS PARTICULAR KISS begins with cancer: “when he says, It’s probably cancer, / I dog-ear this moment, crease / the corner of this word, Cancer, / as it kisses me for the first time.” Most of the poems in this collection of 12 line, sonnet-like poems were written at a time when John Kay was in pain in all ways possible and thought he had very little time to live. He not only tells his own story and how it feels to be in his skin, but he also becomes a magnet for the stories of others, including holocaust victims and survivors, which function as metaphors for his own state of being. Almost every poem is about death or dying with little hope. Yet despite the melancholy sadness and grief in Kay’s poems, they are suffused with a beauty and poignancy that lingers on in memory long after reading. THIS PARTICULAR KISS, winner of the 24th Annual Pearl Poetry Prize, is illustrated with 12 original drawings by artist-poet David Barker.