The poems in Until the Full Moon Has Its Say were inspired by the loss of poet Conrad Hilberrys wife of fifty-six years, Marion. While the poems in this volume delve into the initial emptiness and hopelessness of grieving, the poets connections to the natural world, music, and other people ultimately bring him back into the present while still acknowledging and honoring the past. The work of a skilled poet with a lifetime of experience, this collection displays Hilberrys mastery of form. The books three sections include a sonnet, five villanelles, and a variety of stanza structures, all written in his signature tone, which is contemplative, tender, and moving. The elegant poems of Until the Full Moon Has Its Say arise from the consideration of ordinary, even humble, subjects-a bowl on a table, a blackout, mosquitoes, garlic mustard, algae on the local pond.
