Trying x Trying

Malech’s moving fifth collection (after Flourish) is a meditation on motherhood and loss in perilous times. Impressive in their attention to language, Malech’s poems interrogate “our moment’s um,” musically considering the complexities of the moment while reflecting on the challenges of writing itself. Rooted in close observation, these poems offer a practice that proves fraught: “wherever I look is looking away,” Malech writes. The collection grapples with the pandemic and a world in which “our list of what is gone goes on.” The speaker is acutely aware of the myriad dangers around them, of how “those mouths of ours that now—still/ now—are even deadly when we sing.” Despite the crises looming in the background, Malech finds room for tenderness and hope. In “For My Friend Who Is Tired of Children in Poems,” she writes: “let’s be sick of the sweetness of this world.” Malech stares into the void with wit and defiance, reminding the reader that “that roar you hear/ is just eternity.” It’s an inventive and gripping work. (Oct.)