What the Last Word Knows

By: Smith, Brian R.

What the Last Word Knows brings together acrostics, sestinas, and special-form poems that explore memory, love, family, grief, nature, aging, courage, regret, forgiveness, joy, and the ordinary moments that become a life.

In the acrostics, another word waits quietly along the first letters of the lines. In the sestinas, six end-words return in shifting patterns, gathering new meaning each time they appear. The final section pushes those constraints further, hiding more than one message inside a poem.

Accessible rather than academic, this collection is written for readers who enjoy both the feeling of poetry and the discovery of how it was built. From oceans and mountains to heartache, laughter, silence, time, and home, each poem invites the reader to look once-and then look again.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HH9W925W
• ISBN13: 9798170948048
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 98 Pages
• Weight: 0.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.5" x 8.5"