By Stephanie M. White, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch

Funeral home director Thomas Lynch’s essays are as much about poetry as they are about undertaking, as much about life as they are about death.

Acclaimed essayist and poet Lynch runs the family funeral home in Milford, Michigan. Bodies in Motion and at Rest is a collection of essays that addresses both of Lynch’s professions but, more importantly, links them wholly to one another. Lynch writes about the struggles of each profession and the struggles of mixing them. “Reno,” an essay that touches on marketing strategies for a poet/undertaker, contains moving passages comparing words of a poem to words spoken at a funeral.

In essays such as “Bodies in Motion and at Rest” and “Johnny, We Hardly Knew You” Lynch writes with the knowledge of an undertaker and the wisdom of one who has experienced the death of loved friends and family. He speaks against those who pretend that death may never affect them, and against those who allow the drama of celebrity deaths to overshadow their own losses.

Lynch doesn’t shy away from other serious topics. In “The Way We Are” he describes the alcoholism that runs in his family, writing with honesty about his own collisions with the disease and, more tragically, his son’s. As a victim of and a witness to alcoholism, Lynch writes with sensitivity and honesty about the grief of alcoholism.

These essays contrast with the funny, lighthearted tone found in the other essays of this collection. “Notes on ‘A Note on the Rapture to His True Love’” is a step-by-step approach to writing a good poem. With humor and satire, Lynch makes it clear that he is a humble, sincere poet. “Y2Kat” is a hilarious account of Lynch’s despised pet and adored son.

Like good poetry and good funerals, Lynch’s essays contain some death and some life, some humor and some sobriety, and plenty of honest wisdom.