It was a terrible cloud at twilight: Poems

Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize Series

by Alessandra Lynch

In It was a terrible cloud at twilight, Alessandra Lynch reflects on personal, social, moral, and historical terror. These ambitious, imagistic poems move through subjects of violence and loss that are both deeply personal and elegantly public. The elegiac poems in the final section are dedicated to the poet's friend, author Lucy Grealy, whose plight might also be said to embody terror. Lynch's poems are tactile and visual, coining words and phrases in surprising ways. They engage in intimate conversations that are both dark and whimsical. Selected by James Richardson from a field of more than six hundred manuscripts as the winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize, this is Alessandra Lynch's second collection.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

Reviews

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The wind swerved/again and it was two thin bears in suits,/then men in gasoline-proof/jumpers, long arms flagging/like those in buildings ready to jump"
-It was a terrible cloud at twilight. (36)

Borrowed this from a professor after I heard some good things about it. This was a very solid collection and the poems work very well together. I started reading these pretty haphazardly but consumed the last two (out of three) sections in one sitting, reading many of them out loud. Every poem had something good in it, many being memorable throughout ("Stephanie," "Bruise"). Great imagery and a well fleshed-out ominous tone with plenty of room for beauty too.

The last section was particularly powerful as all of the poems were about the late Lucy Grealy (who I have not yet had the chance to read, but hope to soon). The poems were intense, personal, sincere and sometimes unsettling.

A quick, but powerful read.

[amy jarvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

so unbelievably beautiful—the way Lynch uses language is revelatory and so special

[Genevieve]

"A Great Blue Heron turned on one Great Leg
A Russet Owl shivered in its Black-Eyed Hole"

- from "Parade," p. 50