The Way the Moon: Poems

by Holly Haworth

Genres: Poetry

84 pages, Paperback

Published August 6, 2024

Reviews

[Dan Corrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

*The Way The Moon* is a special, beautiful book of poetry. Holly Haworth’s book as a whole seems meant to be one poem, with its organization around lunar phases -- a sustained work rather than a collection of individual pieces brought together. The book is beautifully lyrical, immersed in the details of the natural world of rural Virginia. The poetry is sonically beautiful with the sounds of the English language blending gracefully and often exuberantly, without being distractingly overdone. Haworth’s book is structured around lunar cycles through the passing of a year, through the natural world's vivid details in Floyd County, Virginia -- filtered through the feelings of one woman who seems almost absorbed into nature itself until becoming a sort of sybil voice beyond the constraints of one human identity: "The torque of the sky / in my hands. / I disappear into days of Joe-Pye weed // grown tall on the islands of the creek. // I disappear. Viburnum's veiny / leaves. Miterwort, spleenwort, elderflower, / trillium. The names bring them nearer." There is so much fecundity throughout this book: “ . . . surreal infestations of stink, starlike clusters / of bluets the bluebird’s wings , red buds’ smears / against the blue of mountains on the horizon. // A duck’s iridescent green / feathers, just the subtlest of / gestures.” *The Way The Moon* is so sustained in maintaining such sonic and imagistic richness. It's surprising for a first book of poems to read as so mature in its craft and thought.