Moon Loves Its Light

Stephanie McKenzie is a visiting assistant professor of English at Sir
Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is
the editor and co-publisher of However Blow the Winds: An Anthology of
Poetry and Song from Newfoundland & Labrado

Marilyn Lerch’s Moon Loves Its Light is a fine first collection of
poetry that places readers in a metaphysical sensibility dedicated to
human rights and shaped by lovely lyricism (it is not surprising that
two of these poems have been set to music). The book has four sections
(A Far Coming, The Taste of Burning, Slow Arriving Spring, and Deep
Peace Gathers), which smack of changing seasons as well as cycles of
experience.

The collection, at its very best (primarily the second section), is far
from gentle, though. In fact, at times it is incredibly disturbing, yet
not as disturbing as the truths with which Lerch engages: the sexual
exploitation and rape of children (“A Disappearing Act”); the
inexplicable misogyny and psychosis that lead a man “on that night /
of drunken rage ... [to tear] his wife apart” (“Total Recall at
Springhill Prison”); the Innu children who “tell of a brother whose
lungs caught fire” while sniffing gasoline (“Playing with Fire”).
Ironically, the poems that this American-born poet dedicates to U.S.
tragedies are the weakest (“A Tale of Two Islands,” “Lament for
O.J.”), and her most profound poems are weakened by the inclusion of
the less profound (“Xmas at Niagara,” “The Great Toronto Garbage
Strike of 2002”) in close proximity to them.

Lerch is trying to say too much in this collection (I question what
holds the first section together), and it could have been much crisper
if 60 of the best pages had been chosen and the weaker poems dropped
(most of the last section, in fact). That said, we would not have had
the pleasure of reading the book’s final lines: “I am not prepared /
for the time when my mother’s eyes / pass over me / as water over
stone.”

Though one can find fault with this book, Lerch’s verse demands
critical care. Moon Loves Its Light leaves me wishing for a long poem
with the strength of Lerch’s vision and depth of her compassion
exploring a more dedicated focus.