Moon Jar

(Paperback)

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In her intimately compelling debut collection Moon Jar, Didi Jackson explores the life-altering and heart-rending loss of a husband to suicide. In an effort to understand this unforeseen and inexplicable act, she maps with immense candor the emotional difficulty of continuing her responsibility as a mother while attempting to regain a s

Reviews

"InMoon Jar, Didi Jackson gives poignant testimony to the sorrow, rage, and piercing clarity of grief. And she bears radiant witness to the moment when bereavement gives way to new joy. These poems are breathtaking and frank, and they constitute a bridge into the regions of the inner life where words too often fail to reach.Tracy K. Smith, author ofLife on Mars, a Pulitzer Prize winner

Moon Jaris one of the loveliest and most honest books about grief and the long road back to hope and love that Ive read in a very long time. These poems tell Didi Jacksons story of losing her husband to suicide and the enormous grief of that loss. But they also show us how we survive such a loss, and that love and life can be ours again. I read this book once, and then again, and again. Jacksons words comfort us, and remind us what it means to be vulnerable and human.Ann Hood

This debut sparkles with haunting, wrenching, breathtaking poems that bear witness to grief and survival. A spouse takes his life, and a poet struggles to find meaning in living and bearing witness to an inscrutable act. Is a future possible when suffering exists, she asks Reinventing biblical narratives and turning to the natural world, to art, and finally to love, the poems inMoon Jar, fearless and unrelenting, redefine what it means to be alive.Jill Bialosky, author ofPoetry Will Save Your Life: A Memoir

"Moon Jaris a haunting yet edifying experience. Jackson shows that poetry can pull the world together when it seems completely torn apart. A poet to watch."Scott Neuffer, writer, poet, editor oftrampset, fromShelf-Awarenessreview

"Didi Jackson is a terrific poet. She writes accessible poems that are packed with startling imagery, art, precise language, and delicate emotions. She manages to make the shocking and heart-breaking very real and yet very tender at once. Though her new book, Moon Jar (Red Hen Press, 2020), opens with the incomprehensible grief and practical horrors of her husbands suicide, the journey through this beautiful book takes us into hope and a future where love and healing are possible."Literary North

Author Bio

Didi Jacksons poems have appeared in the New Yorker, New England Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. After having lived most of her life in Florida, she currently lives in South Burlington, Vermont and teaches creative writing at the University of Vermont.