Stranger by Night: Poems Paperback – March 1, 2022

Grief and loss presented as only Hirsch can.

The Radiance(Detroit 1984)Late Septemberin the shadeoutside of State Hall,that concrete brutality,where my students are smokingoff a hangover and gossiping in Ukrainianwhile Dan Hughes leans on his walkerand talks to me about Shelley'sbright destructions.I did not know it was indelible-the sun spangling the campus trees,the traffic thickening the smog outside the museum on Woodward,our voices rising.When you tell the storyof those years going up in flames,don't forget the radianceof that day in autumnburning out of time.This book of poetry is phenomenal. It conveys every aspect of loss like no other book I have read, both in poetry and in novel form. From the fondness of old memories to the exhausted toll that grief has on the body and the soul, he conveys it all in words so craftily chosen that they will take your breath away. Every one of this book's 59 pages has a new memory from the author, an old scrap of his life that Hirsch has preserved in writing. From the loss of people in his life, to the loss of his vision, to the loss of his past, he gracefully conveys the odd little bits of time and conversation that you remember when it is all gone. While the book doesn’t follow a storyline per say, many of these poems built off each other, creating a vivid and colorful window into Hirsch's past. I think the real test of a book of poetry is whether it makes you feel something and I definitely shed a few tears (the poem “When You Write the Story” hit me where it hurt), but it wasn't only heartbreaking. I smiled as well at poems like “Radiance,” which conveys a beautiful autumn afternoon talking to an old friend that has since passed. They say you have to love something to lose it and this book shows this principle in the beauty, joy and melancholy that is spread in equal measures across the pages of this work. Overall this book is a balanced, touching, beautiful soliloquy on loss and the joys of life.

Hirsh is approachable, encouraging, and wants everyone to love poetry. All that comes through in this collection. Yes, there are elegy poems, but this book is balanced by a celebration of Hirsch’s memories. His poems are warm, sometimes funny or self-deprecating, and move quickly (without stanza breaks). I didn’t want them to end, so I slowed my pace by stopping often to reread.Hirsch is matter of fact about life’s losses, takes a "so that’s how it is but I’d rather talk about this wonderful thing I’ve noticed today or enjoyed 40 years ago" approach. This poem is one of my favorite examples.“A Baker Swept ByYou were alreadylosing your eyesightlast winter in Romewhen you passed in the doorwayat nine o’clock on a Saturday morningand a baker swept byon a shiny bicyclewaving a cap and singingunder his breath,you didn’t know bakers worewhite aprons dusted with flourand floated around the citylike angelson a freshly baked day,…”I hope the Pennsylvania students in this poem were at half as delighted as Hirschwhen he set out by train. This is the poem I read several times over with a smile.“….I was traveling to teachJapanese poetry,stray flashes of beauty,to a high school classroom,but for a momentI sat down on a wooden benchflooded with sunlight.Nothing moved,time stopped like a questionon the dusty clock in the corner,and blue swallowshovered overthe fire cherry.I could hear an endless hushin the mountains.”(from “In the Endless Mountains”)