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Harmonia
Harmonia explores the psychic distance and damage created by loss as it considers art, physics, geology, and literature. These poems offer an intimate look at how grief can sink us, forever changing how we see our closest relationships and the spaces we share.
88 pages, Paperback
Published May 11, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 8, 2023
Moessner’s poems are elegant and carefully balanced. It’s not easy to write about grief, especially
when it is fresh and your wife loses her father. It certainly can put a damper on almost still newlywed bliss, but Moessner balances warmth, concern, and regret without slipping anywhere close to whiny or schmaltzy. We all lose people we love at some time, and these are the kind of poems that help us heal and reflect.
In part 8 of “Angle of Repose,” he sums up his grief poems perfectly:
“In a world where it is difficult to be happy, sadness offers a kind
of grounding, lets you know yourself, how deep the water is,
and how far you have to swim to surface.”
As a cat owner, who has lived with a grieving cat, I was especially touched when he said,
“The cat refused food, touch, us. How do you console a grieving cat?”
(from part 2 of “Angle of Repose”)
This collection also features several ekphrastic (about art) poems. They give us a quiet respite from the pain.
Moessner’s fresh metaphors are perhaps what impressed me most. In “The Last 4th,” he compares his father-in-law’s x-rays to fireworks and memories from lighting sparklers for his little girls on July 4th:
“The X-ray glowed, an ink-swell
like blooms bursting in a black sky.
Your cough, percussive blasts
from the black tar drum of your lungs.”
From “Detective Hercule Poirot Teaches Poetry,”
“Poirot teaches Hastings that everything is important,
every detail. Even the least in the smallest hour speaks:
the tea in the cup, the half-eaten meal before bed…”
How brilliant to connect that to poetry instruction. Maybe that could extend to an entire book of how different people, different professions, animals, things, foods, colors, etc., etc. might teach us lessons in poetry, too.
when it is fresh and your wife loses her father. It certainly can put a damper on almost still newlywed bliss, but Moessner balances warmth, concern, and regret without slipping anywhere close to whiny or schmaltzy. We all lose people we love at some time, and these are the kind of poems that help us heal and reflect.
In part 8 of “Angle of Repose,” he sums up his grief poems perfectly:
“In a world where it is difficult to be happy, sadness offers a kind
of grounding, lets you know yourself, how deep the water is,
and how far you have to swim to surface.”
As a cat owner, who has lived with a grieving cat, I was especially touched when he said,
“The cat refused food, touch, us. How do you console a grieving cat?”
(from part 2 of “Angle of Repose”)
This collection also features several ekphrastic (about art) poems. They give us a quiet respite from the pain.
Moessner’s fresh metaphors are perhaps what impressed me most. In “The Last 4th,” he compares his father-in-law’s x-rays to fireworks and memories from lighting sparklers for his little girls on July 4th:
“The X-ray glowed, an ink-swell
like blooms bursting in a black sky.
Your cough, percussive blasts
from the black tar drum of your lungs.”
From “Detective Hercule Poirot Teaches Poetry,”
“Poirot teaches Hastings that everything is important,
every detail. Even the least in the smallest hour speaks:
the tea in the cup, the half-eaten meal before bed…”
How brilliant to connect that to poetry instruction. Maybe that could extend to an entire book of how different people, different professions, animals, things, foods, colors, etc., etc. might teach us lessons in poetry, too.
October 2, 2023
👀read with eyes
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews