Poignant review of Chana Bloch’s The Moon is Almost Full
Autumn House is moved by Robert Hirshfield’s review of The Moon is Almost Full by the late Chana Bloch in The Jerusalem Report. Hirshfield goes beyond Chana Bloch’s latest book to discuss her struggle with sarcoma and how it influenced her work. Here’s a small glimpse:“What does it mean to be alive in a dying body? To want more life, more time to write? To undergo more and more chemo only to have the tumors return, hopes dashed? Dancing with life along the lip of the grave.
Bloch’s final poems in their tone and spareness allow solitude, the uninvited guest, free rein among her lines. Her voice, as always, is conversational. She is always speaking directly to you about what matters to her. A Bloch poem enters you like the words of a friend, with the same immediacy and adhesive quality.”
Our gratitude to Robert Hirshfield for this illuminating review of Chana’s life and work.
Filed under: Review
