I Watched You Disappear: Poems

by Anya Krugovoy Silver

Passionately written and perfectly crafted, Anya Krugovoy Silver's poems help us to view life through a different lens. In I Watched You Disappear, she offers meditations on sickness but also celebrations of art, motherhood, and family, as well as a sequence of poems based on the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.
Throughout her collection, Silver examines feelings of pain, anger, and urgency caused by a serious illness and presents the struggle to cope in a lyrical and moving way. Never overwhelmed by her own mortality, Silver manages to speak with beauty and grace about a terrifying subject.
In her poems based on Grimm's fairy tales, Silver subtly and surprisingly interweaves retellings of these tales with reflections on life and death. Infinitely touching, engaging, and finely tuned, Silver's poems invite us to look at the lives we love in new and profound ways.

Genres: Poetry

86 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 2014

About the author

Anya Krugovoy Silver was an American poet. She was named Georgia Author of the Year/Poetry for 2015. Silver was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow for Poetry for 2018. She taught in the English Department at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.

Reviews

[Kara Kilgore · Rating 5 out of 5]

My fiancé bought this book for me based on only one poem that he read. He gave it to me and said turn to page 5.I didn't look at the cover or author name. I just quickly turned to page 5 and read Night Prayer

"And what I speak remains traceless- like a beetle's breath, this Amen"

So heart breakingly beautiful. I turned to the the cover, looked at the authors photo. So excited, I said " oh my god! I know her. She gave a reading when I was in Dr Cantwell's fiction class and she's fabulous! "

He had no idea that I knew who this poet was, or that she was a friend of Dr. Cantwell's, or that I had ever attended one of her readings. He chose this book for me based on the beauty and grace of "Night Prayer." I think that alone demonstrates how powerful this poetry is.

In love with this book. Even after I finish it, I return to it again and again.

[Phyllis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've come back to certain poems in this book over and over again, which I think it what separates literature from entertaining reads. The poems use Silver's daily life, paintings and fairy tales as their ostensible subject matter, but what most seem to be doing is trying to make sense of the randomness of life and death. Cancer, which is a big part of her life, is the topic of many of the poems, but they transcend cancer. People who aren't "into poetry" will find most of these poems comprehensible and thought-provoking. So will English major types like me who will also notice the poetic techniques she uses on our second readings.

[Elliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silver writes from this almost outside perspective of her life and her battle with cancer. Her writing reminds me a little of TTW.

“You left into silence.
You left me. You left them. You left us.
I watched you disappear.”

[Bethany Winn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous and heartbreaking.

[Charlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is poetry that speaks to life . . . in many of these poems, the author uses her experiences with cancer to reflect on illness, the body, the soul. The poem, "Leaving the Hospital", will stay with me, I think, especially the first lines: "As the doors slide shut behind me, the world flares back into being --I exist again, recover myself."
Some of the poems talk about her family, about places, and about paintings. The poem "Doors" sent me to my own memory, to think about the doors on homes and buildings that have been important to me. In another, I liked the imagery of peaches as "still wearing the orchard on their skin."

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful

A passionate tribute to both the victims and survivors of cancer--all of them courageous. Anya Krugovoy Silver was honored as Georgia Author of the Year for this unforgettable collection. These poems make you think and feel and, ultimately, succumb to the reality they represent.

[Aria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review can also be found at Snow White Hates Apples.

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

For me, I Watched You Disappear: Poems  by Anya Krugovoy Silver is a collection that started off strong, weakened immensely in the middle but managed to bring itself back up near the final part.

My first issue with this collection is that there are simply too many direct statements and questions. The former of which I find not poetic and the latter of which I think don't work as well as they're supposed to. In a way, they make the poems ugly, clashing with the phrases that are poetic and as a result, creating this uncomfortable teetering between the poetic and the not poetic. Should this teetering be done on purpose to create a juxtaposition between two things, then brilliant, goal achieved! Should it not be done on purpose, well...it's just not my cup of tea.

My second issue is that even though Silver forms tangible enough imagery in each of her poems—sufficiently strong to feel the phantom of emotions, it's neither solid nor bold enough for me to really feel as though I was the persona. I think one of the powers of good poetry involves being able to consume the reader, whether partially or wholly, and resonate with them to the point that they can really imagine themselves as the persona. A few times, I was disappointed in the poems because they start off so strong but end/continue weakly. I can feel the intention of the poet, imagine the emotions she's trying to imbue into her words, but as I try to wholly immerse myself into it, it's the same words that cut me off. 

Other than that, I find that a little too many of the poems here read more like small narratives instead of poetry. For instance, the second section where Silver offers a sequence of poems based on the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales. Even though I'm a huge fan of fairy tales, my love for them couldn't make me love the second section of Silver's collection of poems. They don't sound poetic enough (phonaesthetic devices of poetry, where you at?) to be categorized as poetry to me and that's troubling because sound is really important. 

All the things I didn't like about this collection aside, there are a handful of well crafted poems here, and there is a number of beautiful metaphors, similes and just phrases in general that I find brilliant. Even so, the number of those versus what I didn't like, isn't sufficient to make me adore the majority of this collection. Though, I can appreciate it still. Nevertheless, I'd still check out Silver's other published books just to see if it was this specific collection that was more miss than hit for me or just her style in general.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I learned about this collection from a post for #TheSealeyChallenge on Twitter, and the poem that was shared was so arresting that I immediately went and ordered the collection. Since I was just basing my interest off that one poem (I wish I could remember which one... it might have been the title poem, now that I think about--it's wonderful), I didn't know that Krugovoy Silver had written this collection after a diagnosis of late-stage breast cancer (she went on to publish two more collections, and passed away in 2018). I was also decidedly ~not~ aware of how heavy a focus religion would be in the collection; normally that kind of theme really puts me off, but it's honestly so well done here that I didn't even mind. Just an example of how good poetry transcends subject matter.

And most of the poems here are really, really good. There was a section towards the end that focused on ekphrastic poetry that didn't really work for me, but otherwise, I found the collection as a whole to be very engaging and accomplished. What I found super fascinating is how Krugovoy Silver manages to be both blunt and generous in tone at the same time. This would probably not be a good collection to read if you've recently had a loved one pass away from a terminal illness, because it's pretty unflinching about the reality of such an illness. But if you can handle the emotional weight, it's very rewarding.

What I really appreciated about these poems is how richly crafted they are, without feeling heavy-handed. Just excellent work. Highly recommend this collection!

[Sarah Schantz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a 4 1/2 star rating. I think I'm subtracting the half a point because a few poems fell flat for me but overall the collection is gorgeous--a montage of still-life portraits mostly regarding death as the narrator battles cancer, while also the inevitable study of the body, and in the case of Silver, matters of faith that were delivered specifically via the borderline gruesome (yet lovely) Catholic scope. There was a floral language and fairy tale essence that particularly sang to my sensibilities. The cover is absolutely exquisite.

[Lisa Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite poems of love, faith, and illness. Achingly beautiful with gorgeous language that seems out of place at first for such heartbreaking subjects as cancer, death, and loss. But ultimately, the poet's explorations of love and faith lift illness and death out of the simple tragedy and into a place the poet aspires to understand more fully.

[Jayant Kashyap · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here’s not just loss seeking space for itself between these pages, between the lines that embellish these pages. There is, obviously, so much more than that.
From memories, to wishes, nothing remains that Anya has not touched — no reader, either, remains from being touched.

[Scott Cairns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing collection by an amazingly accomplished poet. Memory eternal.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[John Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid collection, the poet in familiar territory reflecting on cancer, death, motherhood, and the church.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some very, very beautiful poems in here. I would read much more of her work.

[Brianna Bratrud · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is spot on.
https://southernlitreview.com/reviews...

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

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