This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. I want to start by quoting how my guest Christian Wyman describes an essay he wrote back in 2007.

He says it was about despair, losing the ability to write, falling in love, receiving a diagnosis of an

incurable cancer, having my heart ripped apart by what slowly and in spite of all my modern secular instincts I learned to call God.

The themes of cancer, enduring unendurable pain, living on the edge of death, and searching

for an understanding of God and faith have remained

central to Wyman's essays and poems.

That's reflected in some of his book titles.

His 2013 memoir with poems is titled My Bright Abyss, Meditation of a Modern Believer.

His new book is called Zero at the Bone, 50 entries against despair.

It's part memoir and part a collection of his poems and poems by others related to the book's themes.

Weiman was diagnosed with the rare form of cancer when he turned 39. He's now 57. with a

diagnosed with the rare form of cancer when he turned 39. He's now 57. Over those nearly two decades, he's endured many rounds of chemo, a bone marrow transplant,

and several experimental therapies. He's in remission as of last spring. He grew up in a small town in West Texas where everyone identified as Christian. His family belonged to an evangelical church. In college he became a quote

ambivalent atheist and in his late 30 started searching for God and the meaning of

God. He teaches religion and literature at Yale Divinity School and the Yale

Institute of Sacred Music. For 10 years he was the editor of America's

oldest poetry magazine called Poetry magazine. He's the author of more than a dozen books of poetry and prose, and was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.

Christian Wyman, welcome to Fresh Air, and I'm so glad you're in remission. I assume you still are. I am. Thanks for having me.

Oh, you're so welcome. Your writing is really quite beautiful and with a lot of depth and feeling.

Thank you. I want to ask you not only the state of your health but the state of your body now.

I know there were times when you barely felt alive. You've been through so much over the past

nearly two decades. What do you like physically now?

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