The Sky Inside Your Body

by Christina Turczyn

The Sky Inside Your Body is a convergence between poet and nature. Among the seasons, winter stands out most. "Sometimes the nuns ask us to paint deer on the windows for the holidays" in a poem that ponders the right to safety. In some of the poems we witness how the trauma of war and the pains of being a refugee are reflected in the next generation. In other poems, a mother and daughter are both slipping. The mother slips into dementia and the daughter slips away from a version of the future, leaving Harvard. The body is prominent in these poems from bone to blood to illness. In this book, Turczyn shows her mastery over the prose poem. The book closes with their cinematic universes. She writes, "I feel that language should never be an escape," encouraging the reader to dive deeper into the words. She reaffirms the self through language.