Verbal Silences is a 70 page volume of poetry which artistically expresses ideas and emotions which lie beyond language. These are moments with the silent chill of winter and the comfort of hot coffee, moments spoken between family, friends and lovers with a glance across the table, the creaking of old bone, the clicking of knitting needles, a long letter never sent, or the gift of a rose. In these silences, Ann Calandro gives voice to the artistic relationship between the mystical and physical realms of humanity—this is how nature speaks to the artist.
Ann Calandro uses Verbal Silences to explore the unspoken way we communicate with each other, with nature, with ourselves. There is painful silence, joyful silence, and times when silence communicates more strongly than words, like the gift of a rose. Calandro begins and lingers in the silence of winter. “But through this bitter winter I still hope / For warmth, for a small / Jagged burst of green, for mercy…”
In these winter scenes where even sound wears gloves, we find comfort in warming hands around a hot blue coffee mug, we ache in the silence of the uncompleted kiss, and we communicate beyond words with cracking knuckles, burps, creaking bones, the simple act of living. And finally, in the last poem, Calandro finds that “burst of green” she had hoped for in her own poetic voice: “No matter what dreams hold us / By the throat, we awaken / With stories in our fingers, / Groping / To plant our voice.”
