By Kavita Mistry
by Cathryn Conroy (Dublin, Ohio): I read a lot, and I read many types of books—fiction, nonfiction, classics, short stories, and essays. Rarely do I read poetry. Even though it’s more than four years later, I still am haunted by the beautiful, evocative words of poet Amanda Gorman when she stood on the west front of the U.S. Capitol reading her poem “The Hill We Climb.” She was only 22, and she took my breath away. So I read this book of poetry, which includes that extraordinary piece.
Taken as a whole, this volume is a history of the Covid pandemic creatively and heartbreakingly told in poetry. Although there are a lot of facts sprinkled throughout the book, it is primarily an accounting of how we felt during that time of quarantine and isolation, fear and uncertainty, life and death. And while it did bring it all back for me, it was also a solace filled with a special kind of healing and even hope.
While the “The Hill We Climb” is my favorite poem in this selection, my second favorite is title “The Miracle of Morning” with plays on the words morning and mourning, but primarily about how just taking an early morning walk in Covid times brought a welcome sense of normalcy. It’s not just a poem; it’s also a story. And that is true of many of the pieces in this book.
It starts out like this: “We thought we’d awaken to a world in mourning. Heavy clouds crowding, a society storming. But there’s something different on this golden morning. Something magical in the sunlight, wide & warming.”
Unlike a novel or a history book, this tome is not read for content. I had to change how I read, going much slower, rereading, pausing to contemplate, and then returning the next day to reread something that I couldn’t stop thinking about.
This is not only a lovely small book but also a subversive one.