Belly Dancing in a Brown Sweatsuit
by Elaine Sorrentino offers readers a first collection of poems full of candid self-observation, tenderness for a world almost lost, and good humor. In poems like her hilarious post-Covid elegy, "A Moment of Silence for the Salad Bar", or through the closing line of her title poem, in which the speaker announces "I didn't come to watch," Sorrentino invites readers to participate in love in its many forms and walk life's path with joy, even when it is deeply shadowed. A 2X cancer survivor, she reminds us to celebrate what we're given.
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Miriam O'Neal
, Plymouth, MA Poet Laureate
is a fascinating portrait of life in the U.S. post-World War II: childhood traumas; the exigencies of family life, including birth, divorce, mothering, elder care and death; health issues including COVID and-especially-breast cancer; and even rape. For each of these, there are, as the first poem says, "befores and afters" because they alter the life of the narrator. These poems are livened and deepened by the presence of details, also characteristic of the era in which the poems take place: Scrabble and Candy Land, Land O' Lakes butter and Ruffles potato chips, the Boston Red Sox, and a Singer sewing machine, to name a few. There is also the iconic road trip (but with a difference). And of course, that brown sweatsuit. While we are relishing personal and family stories, Sorrentino occasionally surprises us with a poem on a contemporary social issue-which probably should not be a surprise, since we learn early that her family origin story includes the Great Acadian Deportation. There is also an abundance of humor, which even shows up in some of Sorrentino's haiku. Readers of a certain age will revel in the memories the book elicits, while young readers may gain a better understanding of the author's generation. Mine this collection for the gold coins that await you.
Wilda Morris
, author of
Pequod Poems: Gamming with Moby-Dick
and
At Goat Island and Other Poems