Father’s testament to daughter now on sale; Collection of poems reflects one man’s take on life

Jim Unbehagan always had a love for poetry.

The Gibson man whittled away his spare time as a wordsmith. By day, the husband and father worked the last eight years as a sign specialist with the state Department of Transportation and Development.

The drive between jobs provided the needed solitude to develop ideas. And those ideas, he kept in a shirt pocket written on a small notepad.

The scribbled notes would take on an urgent mission when, in 2005, Unbehagan got the news that a close cousin had been killed in a car crash returning home from a Saints game. He was only 33.

“He left behind two young children and a wife,” the part-time poet said.

“It was sad. Those boys would never know him.”

And that’s what made Unbehagan so determined to see his poetry in print.

“It’s really for my daughter,” he explained. “The works are about my beliefs and my convictions. After my cousin died I started thinking, ‘What if something happened to me? Would she know who I was and what I believed in?’”

And toward that end, Unbehagan committed to paper the works he’d spent three years honing.

“A Picture of My Soul,” self-published through Xlibris bookstore, is Unbehagan’s insightful offering for his 7-year-old daughter, Christy.

Available in paperback ($10) or hardback ($16.99), the work is available via the Web at www.Xlibris.com.

“One day, when she’s older, these will be there for her,” he said.

During high school and a year at Nicholls State University, Unbehagan said he’s never had a formal writing class. “I never really made good grades,” he confesses. “I wish I had pursued this at age 18, but I don’t know if I would have had the wisdom that I hopefully now have at 44.”

Even now, many of the people around him don’t know Unbehagan is in print. “I wasn’t sure I was going to publish this,” he said of “A Picture of My Soul.” “These are some of my most private thoughts.”

The 60 poems take on religion, politics and philosophy in a sensitive, head-on approach. “He does not write his poetry for the masses, but for the few, for the few who dare to think otherwise, dare to think contrary, dare to think!,” his publishing company notes in a release. “The author believes the best way to become is to be.”

Today the poet/sign specialist is over halfway through his second book.

“This one will be simpler to read,” he promises. “My poetry has gotten better since ‘A Picture.’ This one will be more reflective of life in south Louisiana and things going on here in our backyard.”