Kyrie: Poems by Ellen Bryant Voigt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Like the beasts in their holes,
no on stirred--if not sick
exhausted or afraid."

I've been bingeing poetry since this at-home season began. Having run through most of my t0-do list, I was looking back at some best of lists in order to see what I might want to order next and this volume was included in one: A series of poems about the 1918 flu pandemic.

These are beautiful, harrowing poems. When published the book was trying to tell people about an experience long forgotten by most. Survive the war but not the sickness. One family struck down while the neighbors never got ill. Anger and fear at strangers. Envy that those who were well. The second wave. Funerals with few people. Dying at home in the bed where they had given birth. Prayers to God.

We have now had some of these experiences are selves and will likely experience others. Here are words to help us grasp our time.



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