Requeening

Moore’s exquisite debut uses beekeeping and its attendant metaphors as a motif to explore childhood homes, marriage, and the birth of and raising of a child. Composed primarily of one to two-page free verse poems, the book also includes a dynamic set of haibuns (a Japanese form that joins a haiku and a prose poem) about her daughter’s girlhood, as “Morning Haibun with Tween”: “The girl can sleep now, hours and hours at a time—years since the last 2 am tiptoe down the hall to fold herself sweetly between us like a warm sheet.” Moore’s refusal to turn away from or sentimentalize hard moments is often leavened with humor, as the very titles of the poems suggest: “Labor as an Exotic Vacation” and “Postcard to My Left Axillary Lymph Nodes.” The final sentence of “Bad at Bees,” the four-page prose piece that closes the collection, provides an immediate retrospective focus: “I don’t really know what I’m doing most days. I just like to touch fear.” An homage to the power of matriarchy, Moore’s powerful collection will leave readers reflecting on the roles visible and invisible played by women. (Oct.)