Absence is one of those commonplace words that can prove oddly resistant to definition. The poems in this collection undertake the work of defining absence in a number of contexts, most painfully that of the premature death of a child.
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A teacher for almost 30 years, from a public junior high school to Harvard and, presently, MIT, Hildebidle is the author of fiction, essays, and poetry. His work has appeared in several journals and anthologies. This volume, some poems of which have been published in different form, took its final shape while the poet was on a Fulbright scholarship to University College in Galway, Ireland. Announced in its title and presented in its underlying themes, this collection attempts to define absence in a variety of everyday contexts, from the nagging late-night thoughts concerning all the things one has left undone to the avoidance of those things one wishes had never taken place. ``The permanent is only accidental, or maybe the imagination's work,'' the poet reminds us. Foremost among the many absences one must endure during a lifetime is the passing of a loved onein Hildebidle's case, the death of an infant daughter, his ``child of an hour.'' He marks the anniversaries of her passing years, picturing her among a group of school children, seeing her face among the anonymous old photos and tintypes offered at a yard sale among ``the wrinkled, the nameless, the lost.'' A walk upon the beach, rather than permitting the poet a brief surcease from mourning, presents yet another occasion to grieve. ``The pebbles along the beach's arc showed what future even granite might expect here.'' While one might expect so much moroseness to wear down one's good will toward these well-crafted poems, Hildebidle presents us with necessary lessons and instructs us in how to make peace with life's impermanence.-- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"The absence referred to by the poet in a major part of this collection is that of his daughter, Caroline, who died shortly after her birth in 1985. He muses on the impossibility of forgetting her . . . but though these memories are painful, more painful by far to the poet is the 'final loss' of total forgetfulness." Boston Irish Reporter, November 1999
"Hildebidle uses language both sparse and lyrical, and particularly effective. . ." Irish Emigrant, October 1999
"DEFINING ABSENCE is really an odyssey of a parent's grief. . . It is to the poet's credit that poems in such a highly subjective collection reflect the depth of loss he feels, but at the same time, never descend to the maudlin. This is a very moving and thought-provoking collection." -- Local Ireland News
After One Year
Botany, Of A Kind
Caroline: March 30, 1985
December
The Disasters Of War
Freud In The Woods
Geology
Her Quilt: Bear Paw
Her Quilt: Dutchman's Puzzle
Her Quilt: Log Cabin
Her Quilt: Lone Star
Her Quilt: Rob Peter And Pay Paul
Her Quilt: Shoo-fly
Herzegovina
High Desert
Lamppost And Child In Autumn, Northfield Mass
March 30, 1987
Not Learning To Juggle
Off Season
Presences
Remembrance?
Settling In
Skater
Sunup
Talking It Through, Again
There
This Evening
Thoreau: May
Thoreau: Mid-year
Tidying
Tintypes, Snapshots, Cartes De Visite, Portraits
To Accompany A Gift Of Flowers
Walking Him Home
Your Day
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
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Defining Absence,
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This review is from: Defining Absence (Salmon Poetry) (Paperback)
Absence is one of those commonplace words that can prove oddly resistant to definition -- partly because there are so many varying forms of absence, from temporary (going off for a walk around the block) to the most permanent, notably death. The poems in this book undertake the work of defining absence in a number of contexts, most painfully that of the premature death of a child.
John Hildebidle has spent nearly thirty years teaching, in a public junior high school, at Harvard, and now at MIT. During the 1994-5 academic year, he was attached to the English Department of University College, Galway, Ireland, on a Fulbright scholarship. He lives in Cambridge MA (USA) with his wife and children, and writes fiction, essays, and poetry. His books include The Old Chore (Alice James Books), Stubbornness: A Field Guide (SUNY Binghamton), and One Sleep, One Waking (Wyndham Hall Press).
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