If No Moon

by Moira Linehan

If No Moon by award-winning author Moira Linehan documents the effects of profound loss and the dark withdrawal into grief. Wherever the author turns—the landscape of her backyard in Massachusetts, a Trappist monastery in Kentucky, the museums of Florence, or the cliffs of Inishmor in Ireland—she sees only the geography of emptiness. Crossovers between craft and art, form and voice, knitting and memory, recur throughout the poems. Lying within the tradition of narrative poetry, elegy, and the lyric, the collection reveals the mysterious journey of return. Coming full circle to find again the lyrical and the transcendent within the everyday, beauty eventually wins out. If No Moon , accessible to all who have or will experience loss, is the voice of one who has come to understand that there is no other work but starting over. 

88 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 2007

Reviews

[Kila Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poignant collection about grief. The speaker cares for her dying husband for years and chronicles how she yearns to be desired and wanted, but remains focused on her husband while he needs in-home care. Even after his passing, she remains faithful to him. Wearing only black after his passing, she finds conjuring memories from before he became ill difficult.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of poems about a woman whose husband died of cancer. Some of the poems actually made me tear up.