The Silk the Moths Ignore

Book excerpt: The Silk the Moths Ignore animates the liminal, sometimes gothic, spaces of miscarriage, pregnancy, and early parenthood with exquisite defamiliarizing detail. Weaving together prose versets, sonnets, and short poems with titles like "Against Choking" and "To Acknowledge Damage," the collection sings, bleeds, and casts spells to "carry hope like a weight." As evidenced by the reception to Michelle Obama's Becoming, as well as recent writing by Chrissy Teigen and Meghan Markle, The Silk the Moths Ignore arrives at a moment when people finally seem willing to discuss miscarriage with an openness that has previously been taboo. Tate brings a fresh and embodied language of grief and song to a conversation still beset with platitude and euphemism. For the many people who have experienced loss, this book offers the peculiar comfort of an alien yet instantly recognizable landscape.