What Blooms in Winter is Maria Mazziotti Gillan's 2016 collection that was widely praised by critics and poets for its "unsparing honesty" and its ability to find beauty in the hardships of aging, grief, and the immigrant experience.
Critics consistently highlight the emotional depth of the collection, noting that Gillan’s work stands apart from the often abstract nature of contemporary academic poetry.
Grace Cavalieri (Washington Independent Review of Books): "I’ll read this book if ever I forget the purpose of poetry—if ever I start believing it’s only about the adornment of language. This is the stuff that made humankind want to speak, to write."
Kenneth Scambray (L'Italo Americano): "What has always distinguished her poetry... is her unsparing honesty in her confrontation of some of the most intimate details of family life... her poetry has always taken great risks."
This collection is structured as a narrative journey through time. It juxtaposes the "cold-water flats" of the 1950s with the "empty house" of the present.
In Maria Mazziotti Gillan’s collection, the "blooms in winter" are both a literal image of resilient nature and a metaphor for the strength
found in the later stages of life. She
suggests that the most beautiful things—memory, gratitude, and a sense
of self—often only fully "bloom" when the easier seasons of youth have
passed, and the "ground is hard."
The "Winter" of the title refers to the later stages of life, widowhood, and physical decline, but the "Blooms" are the "daily miracles" Gillan identifies, such as the ability to hold a pen, a phone call from a child, or the sensory memories of a mother’s starched linens.
She argues that we only learn true gratitude when we "bloom" through these limitations.
"The Lace Tablecloth and the Patterns of Memory" is a poem that uses physical objects as "anchors" for her memories. The poem centers on a trunk full of linens and lace that Gillan's mother brought from Italy. These handcrafted items represent her pride, artistic skill, and the culture she carried with her.
Her mother's dedication is shown through her penny-saving from a 25-cent-an-hour factory job in Paterson, in order to buy linens. She would also take the tablecloths home after family holidays to wash and iron them, returning them pristine.
The lace acts as a physical manifestation of memory. Decades later, the memories of eating as a family on these tablecloths serve as an enduring symbol of the speaker's roots and of her mother's deep, silent love.
Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest poetry collection is When the Stars Were Still Visible (2021). Other recent publications are the poetry and photography collection, Paterson Light and Shadow, and the poetry collections What Blooms in Winter and The Girls in the Chartreuse Jackets, a pairing of her poems with her paintings.
Maria's artist website is MariaMazziottiGillan.com and her poetry website is MariaGillan.com.
