I'm Fine, but Thanks for Asking

Jude Lally

From the author of The View from Down Here comes an enlightening new full-length collection of poems about the challenges of living with Friedrich's Ataxia. From the difficulties of coping with isolation to the joys of spending time with family and friends, Jude Lally has captured a wide spectrum of emotion in these brilliant poems.

What Others Say About I'm Fine, but Thanks for Asking

With his new book, I'm fine, but Thanks for Asking poet Jude Lally proves that "no impairment prevents one's voice from causing an uproar." Whether confrontational—addressing "single-serving friends," introspective—connecting to parents and loved ones, or quiet meditations on loss and longing, these poems touch the reader in a profound way. Jude Lally's new collection tells heartbreaking stories with wry humor and unflinching honesty with a voice that deserves to be heard.

—Richard Taylor

In I'm Fine, but Thanks for Asking, Jude Lally is "still mad as hell" and "ready for the hurt." Illuminating the mundane things in life like going to the bathroom, hopping boulders while hiking, or simply being able to jump out of bed, we are reminded of what is often taken for granted. These poems confess the dreams and demons as well as the daily joys and struggles of a writer facing a rare disease and an uncertain fate. In them, we find him living for today, fully and honestly, with a refreshing sense of humor that offers light and hope amid the darkness. He stares his condition in the face, laughs and escapes into his imagination, determined "not to dry up/and blow away." This collection signals Jude Lally is here to stay, a hardy perennial, a poet that continues to bloom.

—Eric Scott Sutherland

Three-Legged Dog

Your bark is fierce

When someone knocks on the door
they may feel scared
and think BEWARE OF DOG

You sound so tough
and menacing
with your foul howl
and gruff ruff

Then as you
hobble to the door
to greet them
you lick their outstretched hand;
they're relieved to see
most likely they could
outrun your beastly bravado

Three-legged dog—
you prove
no impairment
prevents one's voice
from causing an uproar

Details and Ordering

Publication Date: February 9, 2012
Format: Softcover, 6" x 9"
ISBN: 978-1-936628-08-7
Price: $12.00

Ships on or before February 9th

About the Author

Jude Lally's poetry reflects who he is and where he's from. Raised in central and eastern Kentucky by a single mother who sometimes struggled to make ends meet, he learned how to be independent and self-reliant at an early age. He and his small family moved around quite a bit, but never out of the region. This taught him the virtue of adaptability, which would also prove very useful in his life. Jude was diagnosed with Friedrich's Ataxia, a rare, degenerative neuromuscular disease, in the summer of 1998. He earned a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Kentucky in 2006. His first collection of poems, The View from Down Here, was published in early 2010 by Accents Publishing. He currently resides in Lexington, Kentucky.