Terminal Surreal: Poems

by Martha Silano

This unflinching poetry collection follows the author’s diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
 
In her masterful poetry collection Terminal Surreal, Martha Silano confronts the reality of mortality with gorgeous attention to imagery and scene. The book follows a trajectory from early symptoms before diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to full-blown illness and its effects on friends and family, including her children, who appear in poems like “After Dropping My Son Off at College” and “My Nineteen-Year-Old Daughter Is My Personal Assistant.”

With a devoted naturalist’s eye, Silano revels in birds, trees, and flowers in a way that reminds readers we are connected to the world around us. The book touches on the medical, the metaphysical, and even the cosmological (through encounters in medical offices and on a moon of Mars). With Nutter Butters and Lorna Doones, abecedarians and self-elegies, Silano’s singular, feisty, contemporary voice propels these poems of grief and acceptance as they explore the transformational power of art.

When I Learn Catastrophically

is an anagram of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
When I learn I probably have a couple years,
maybe (catastrophically) less, crossword puzzles
begin to feel meaningless, though not the pair
of mergansers, not the red cardinal of my heart.
The sky does all sorts of marvelously uncatastrophic
things that winter I shimmy between science
& song, between widgeons & windows, weather
& its invitation to walk. Walking, which becomes
my lose less, my less morsels, my lose smile
while more sore looms. . . .

Genres: Poetry

116 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2025

Reviews

[Jessica Gigot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martha Silano is/was a prolific and generous poet. This book is a gift to the living, a demonstration of her grounded grace and grit. Martha’s humor and wisdom live on in this prescient collection.

From “Possible Diagnosis”
“Maybe I am a witch for the drama cauldron,
maybe I just need more sleep, more
nookie, cookies-n-cream”

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection tied together by the poet’s thinking through her terminal ALS diagnosis. The language is inventive, musical, and conversational, and I enjoy the pop culture references. I couldn’t keep up with all the bird species mentioned, but I enjoyed the poems that threaded in musings on subatomic particles. The several abecedarians are exceptionally good, lending themselves to the poet’s penchant for lists. The problem with this collection is that so many of the poems are analyzing the same themes, mainly that of mortality. I find I really like most of the poems individually, but pushed together they are hard to tease apart. The other issue is that as we progress, the tone seems to get lighter and lighter, and we lose the good tension and mixed-up feelings we started with.

[Cee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible.