Multiplying the Moon

The opening poems of "Multiplying The Moon" are Myra Schneider's response to her recent experience of terrible illness. In the aftermath of fighting breast cancer, she found herself writing poems that explore transience, death and survival from many different angles. The main theme of "Voicebox", the long fictional narrative in the middle of the book, is communication; the poem follows the connections and disconnections between its main characters. In a short poem sequence, the poet draws on findings from the 1901 census to re-create her father's early life, and the understanding she gains helps her to feel a new closeness with him. This, Schneider's most ambitious collection, is united by the theme of investigation of the self and its relationship with the outside world.