REVIEW by GRACE CAVALIERI
from EXEMPLARS by Grace Cavalieri,
Washington Independent Review Of Books
Swimming in the Rain: New and Selected Poems, 1980-2015. by
Chana Bloch.
Autumn House Press. 211 pages
“The adult heart is the size of a fist”
says Bloch—and her New & Selected poems explore its aspects. She’s the empress
of relationships—the lover, husband, father, “What’s between us/ seems
flexible as the webbing/ between forefinger and thumb…” In another, she
waits to hear about the size of a tumor in the poem “Inside Out.” We wait
as well. Bloch is essential reading for anyone who has ever loved anyone and
that makes a wide audience for her. In High Wind, Block says“…There
is still time to say what the two of us/ never dared—//Let it bring the house
down.”
SOMETIMES I WANT TO SINK INTO YOUR BODY (from the
book Blood Honey 2006.)
Sometimes I want to sink into your body
with the fever that spikes inside me
to be a woman
who can open a man.
Why must I be only softness and haunches,
a satin cul-de-sac?
You ought to know what sharpens me
like a barbed arrow.
Do you think we’re so different?
How you tease me, twiddle me,
hustle me along,
just when I’d like to splay you
tooth and nail.