Second Bloom: Poems

by Anya Krugovoy Silver

In Second Bloom, Silver looks unflinchingly and honestly at the suffering of cancer, while at the same time celebrating the possibility of joy, the persistence of beauty and love, the simultaneous winnowing and comfort of faith. These poems are contemplative and often personal, but reach out to the world as a from IV poles to hula hoops, from riding a roller coaster with one's son to comforting a dying friend at Christmas. The poems glean their subject matter from ordinary life, from art, from the natural world. Silver's poetry attempts to preserve the world's luminous moments and to hold grace and despair simultaneously in the human heart.

Genres: Poetry

90 pages, Paperback

Published September 6, 2017

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

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I find particularly attractive in Second Bloom is Silver's way of scattering lines of naked truth or desire amid rich meditations of nature, holidays, faith, family. In this way, Silver's voice is reminiscent of Louise Gluck; I'm thinking "Cape May at Dusk" and "Migrations" in particular. This is the voice of a person who has little time left and nothing to lose by just saying it already, and I think all poets could take a lesson, dying or no.

Examples of these striking lines:

-I don't know why I'm still alive. (from Cape May at Dusk)
-And when I die, what will you do? (from How to Talk to a Sick Woman)
-Merciful one, begotten of woman, understand/how difficult it is to trust that you are kind. (from Fourth Advent)
-I want my father/to rise from death/and speak to me. (from Migrations)

(There was even a hint of David Sedaris in the poem, "To the Man Who Yelled 'Hey, Baby!' at Me.")

Favorite poems:

Almond Blossoms
Me, Us
Al-Quddus
Fourth Advent
Christmas Eve
Eating Baklava on New Year's Eve
Waking Poem for Andy
Migrations
Table by the Window
August

RIP, Ms. Silver, died August 6, 2018. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harr...

[Lisa Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anya Krugovoy Silver, poet, Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) sister, exceptional human being, dear friend, died on August 6, 2018, while I was reading this book of her poems. Anya was an extremely gifted poet. She crafted poems about her life, her family - her fierce love for her husband and her son - her joie de vivre, her faith, her love of nature, her career teaching English. She also wrote exquisite but devastating poems about illness, cancer, living with a life-threatening disease, death.

Her death came as a terrible shock to many of us, and yet was not unexpected - this is illustrative of the life Anya lived after being diagnosed with IBC, especially after the cancer metastasized. Anya had so much left to give - love to her family, teaching to her students, poetry to the world, friendship to many, sisterhood to fellow women diagnosed with IBC as well as women with metastatic cancer. But this extraordinary poet, woman, friend was taken from us. Her poetry is just one of the legacies she leaves us.

[Emily Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A close second to Silver's "I watched you dissappear" collection. As usual with poetry some individual poems resonated more than others for me, ranging anywhere from 2-5 stars on each one. But for most of the collection I was thinking it would average out to a four star read. Then I got to the last section and loved nearly every one of those poems, so it brought the average up for me. Beautiful, raw, simplisitic, but so attentive to detail and metaphor. A celebration of the world and human connection, a rage against terminal illness, and sorrow for all the losses. Well balanced and thought provoking.

[John Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems written about the author's battle with cancer are especially effective.