At the Hour of Eclipse

Reading Anatomy of the Eclipse feels revelatory-like deciphering codedmessages smuggled across enemy lines off ering sustenance to thoseunder siege. Ellen Hinsey gives voice to the duality of silence, both itspower and its danger, a foreboding hush before, and a shrouding veilafter political violence, genocide and territorial confl icts. Oracular andoblique, the poems tease us to the limits of thought, making us feel thevastness on the other side of all we don't know about ourselves and ourworld. With elegant precision and a sweeping narrative arc irrevocablylinking past with present and future, Hinsey's poems invite us to bearwitness alongside her, to listen and observe: "Is there a witness for thisdaybreak that drags forward/ its incurable news?" Rich in aural refrains, the poems create a soundscape in which mankind's "vast/ Archive ofterror" echoes across time and space, quickening something in us, something prior and utterly secure, an aspect of being unintimidatedby the portents of darkness descending. We've been here before, toooften. Acknowledging that "the predatory Past circles back," we may betterpursue a future supported by the ancient virtues of dignity, patienceand endurance: "For like the eternal/ plague seasons: the trial of its fever hourtoo shall pass." By forcing us to slow down and let the mind linger, herpoems brace, embrace. and fortify.

Pagina's: 78, Paperback, Arrowsmith Press