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In Second Bloom, Silver looks unflinchingly and honestly at the suffering of cancer, while at the same time celebrating the possibility of joy, the persistence of beauty and love, the simultaneous winnowing and comfort of faith. These poems are contemplative and often personal, but reach out to the world as a whole: from IV poles to hula hoops, from riding a roller coaster with one's son to comforting a dying friend at Christmas. The poems glean their subject matter from ordinary life, from art, from the natural world. Silver's poetry attempts to preserve the world's luminous moments and to hold grace and despair simultaneously in the human heart.
About the author
Second Bloom is Anya Silver's fourth book of poetry. Her previous books are The Ninety-Third Name of God, I Watched You Disappear (2010), for which she won the Georgia Poet of the Year Award, and From Nothing (2016). She is Professor of English at Mercer University, and lives in downtown Macon, Georgia, with her husband and son. She is a poet, teacher, wife, mother, and metastatic breast cancer thriver.
