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livingpalm1's review
5.0
Oh, beautiful words. I knew I would love getting to know Jane Kenyon, but didn't expect to bond to her work quite so quickly. Kenyon's husband, U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall, curated this collection of her prose after her too-young death to leukemia. While the selections seem a bit disconnected (everything from short newspaper columns to Kenyon's translations of Russian poetry to interview transcripts with Bill Moyers and others), the effect of the accumulated whole provides a beautiful snapshot of the woman behind the poems.
Perhaps most striking to me is Hall's decision to include an unfinished essay Kenyon wrote, describing a transformative spiritual experience. She left it unfinished not because she ran out of time but because she "became speechless when she tried to name it." The essay left hanging mid-air, so to speak, seems fitting for her interrupted life.
I'm glad to know that all of Kenyon's suffering with manic depression and unanswered spiritual questions have been released into comfort and joy, but I sure wish she could have written more words (poetry and prose) to leave behind.
Perhaps most striking to me is Hall's decision to include an unfinished essay Kenyon wrote, describing a transformative spiritual experience. She left it unfinished not because she ran out of time but because she "became speechless when she tried to name it." The essay left hanging mid-air, so to speak, seems fitting for her interrupted life.
I'm glad to know that all of Kenyon's suffering with manic depression and unanswered spiritual questions have been released into comfort and joy, but I sure wish she could have written more words (poetry and prose) to leave behind.
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