Luray Gross's With This Body has through lines: early life on a farm, body connections, reactions to current events and traumas, the refuge of words. Dedicated to "all who have lost a child," that child could be a younger self, as well as one lost to illness or tragic circumstance. Often in these poems the adult watches the young self, times and lives overlapping. The effect is delicate; our empathy is cajoled. Many poems are reactions to poets, almost letters, among them to Jane Hirshfield, Richard Hugo, Samira Negrouche, and many more. Gross's impulse to communicate with other writers is expansive yet personal. And as readers, we are always welcome in the conversation. In the center of this book, "What the Poem Carries" spells out some of the magic of these poems:
This poem wants to blend in a chorus,
sounding any note of the chord.
and
This poem knows we all need a break from despair
and all that residual sadness. It's been around long enough
to know that the blues are really love songs
and making peace with terror
is the price you pay to stay alive.
The same or similar ideas and images keep turning up-a favorite sweater, interactions while teaching kids, figures that inhabit a recognizable world. With This Body is a house of many rooms, companionable. It'll get into your dreams.
-Valerie Fox, author of Insomniatic
