Art and Poetry for Ovarian Cancer

“My faults, my failures, are not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.” - Jack Kerouac

My name is Sean Brosnan and I have been writing poetry and painting since I was seven years old. I am a writer and director by trade. 
However I would like to get back to my roots.

My mother Cassandra Brosnan gave me my first journal at the age of seven whilst visiting her in hospital as she was battling with Ovarian cancer. 

I knew she was sick.  I knew she was dying. Even though those around me at the time couldn’t fathom, yet comprehend how to tell me the harsh reality of life; but children have a funny way of knowing such things.

As adults, we try to protect our young from such matters. Thinking it too hard for their minds to comprehend.

Yet the truth is, children are closer to the everlasting, The Source Energy... God... Or, whatever you wish to call it.  Even if you call it nothing at all: For nothing comes from something - Lucretius - 'OnThe Nature of Things.'

So, the following year on December 28th my mother passed away. I was eight years old.  My father told me as we sat on the edge of the bed.
Me holding my teddy bear (Mr. Softy) my father trying to hold in his tears.
The memory still indelible, not for its tragedy but rather for the sense of relief I had felt... Not for me, but for my mother and for my father. 

My dad stared at the floor,  as I told him it was all going to be alright. "Mummy is in heaven now," I said reassuringly. Silently he nodded and dragged his rugged hand undernieth his nose.
"She is no longer in pain daddy, I promise."
I remember these words because I wrote them down with orange crayon inside the journal that my mother gave me that year before.

I still have that journal today.
Its' crayon scribbled poems and optimistic childlike drawings slowly fading away.  I am an adult now which means I can't look at it for long without hurting. Thus is the price you pay for age...
 But at the very back of the black book, there's still a pink lipstick stain, on a blank white page.
 A page where I made my mother press her lips one autumn night before tucking me into bed.
Confused at such an odd request, she said,  "Why  would you want me to do such a thing?"
I looked at her as if the answer was obvious but adults find it hard to see the truth.
 "So I can always kiss you mommy. Even if your not here to kiss me back." 
Without even knowing it, I was trying to preserve a piece of life and love - with art.  So....

What I want to do is to put together a  book filled with poems and paintings that I have done throughout the years. From the age of seven till present day. Some need restoration and others just need time.

The reason I want to print such a thing is that my wife and I recently had our first baby. A beautiful little girl named Marley Cassandra Brosnan.

Marley Cassandra was born at 1:07a.m. on June 28th, 2015.
Two years prior, on the exact same date.
My sister, Charlotte Brosnan Smith passed away from the same disease that took my mother...
Ovarian Cancer. And her mother before that. Roma.

My goal is to finish the Book within three months.

I would love to personally write a poem and sign a copy of the book to every single individual who donates. The majority of the proceeds will go to the Cedars- Sinai Cancer Research Facility.
The same hospital I was born in. My mother died in, and my daughter arrived in... 

Life moves in cycles. Not in triangles.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. Below are just a few poems and paintings that I have done, to give you a feel of what's to come. And a couple of photos of the women that I have loved and lost. This is for them and the countless others who have been affected by this disease.

Much love,

Sean.