Shortlisted for the Kobzar Literary Award.
The Unmemntioable joins letters that should not be joined. There is, in this word, an act of force. Of devastation. The unmentionable is love, of course. But in Moure's poems, love is bound to a duty: to comprehend what it was that the immigrants would not speak of. Now they are dead; their children and grandchildren know but an anecdotal pastiche of Ukrainian history. On Saskatoon Mountain in Alberta where they settled, only the chatter of the leaves remains of their presence. What was not spoken is sealed over, unmemntioable. There is no one left to contact in the Old Country. Can the unmemntioable retain its silence, yet be eased into words? Can experience still be spoken?
[Moure] understands spaces and the art of language's fickle and fleeting ways. Her strength as a poet is simple diction, she toys with layout; how the words also act as visuals on the page … Consider The Unmemntioable a lease on humanity; the tenants are love and loss.
The Unmemntioable has much of value to share on family, history, memory, and above all, experience.
… ambitious and laudable …
… a stunning book ...