Full Worm Moon

“Full Worm Moon calls to mind both the cycle of monthly full moons that structures this collection, and the change that arrives in the loosening of the earth at the end of winter. . . Moore’s attention to details allows the most ordinary of moments to tip, without the slightest poetic willfulness, into the extraordinary. And, equally tuned to life’s harshness and life’s beneficence, Moore’s Full Worm Moon finds a way to bless ‘this place [we] wander through’ even as life’s sorrows are endured.”


—Robert Cording, author of Only So Far





“In a lyric voice infused with Julie L. Moore’s own enduring faith, this collection mines the ruins of a longtime marriage and a woman’s solo journey towards restoration. These marvelous poems return to the locus of changing seasons, marital strife, and love—in the darkness of the fallibly human overturned by the eternal brightness of the divine. . . Here is a remarkable book, in all its graceful beauty and savagery, to savor one syllable at a time: ‘Dusk lifts the light from view/I know this first-hand/then hides it like a key beneath a stone.’”


—Karen An-hwei Lee, author of Phyla of Joy





“The full moon rises each month throughout this moving collection, shining down on ‘the gritty corridors/of [a] long marriage,’ as we watch it painfully unravel. . . Because the book ends with ‘as you take each successive step,’ we know that she’s safe on her journey, a path she didn’t choose, a woman newly and bravely alone. Beautifully crafted and artfully wrought, these poems will sear themselves on your memory long after you close the book.”


—Barbara Crooker, author of Les Fauves





“‘What if the beautiful day is over?’ wonders Julie Moore in her shattering new collection, Full Worm Moon. And indeed, poems about the end of a marriage wring the reader. . .These poems are rich with empathy for all living creatures, especially the exploited and abused. It’s not hard to imagine Jesus striding through the cow pastures and Little League stadiums of Moore’s poems. Amidst the world’s disarray, Moore’s playful wit and exultant language ultimately proclaim the persistence of tenderness, peace, and love.”


—Anna Krugovoy Silver, author of Second Bloom and From Nothing