Fragile Replacements

by William Allegrezza

Poetry. FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS explores the way we live through language, experiencing births, deaths, and rebirths through it, but the book also examines how our language is filled, controlled, and crafted by our societies. Advance Words include Clayton Couch's observation that Allegreza's "capacity to create resonant, 'deep' images is extraordinary." William Allegrezza has published poems around the world while editing Moria Poetry, a journal dedicated to experimental poetry and poetics, and Cracked Slab Books.

Genres: Poetry

116 pages, poetry

First published July 1, 2007

About the author

William Allegrezza edits the press Moria Books, Moss Trill, and teaches at Indiana University Northwest. He has published many poetry books, poetry reviews, articles, translations, short stories, and poems. He founded and curated series A, a reading series in Chicago, from 2006-2010. More information about him can be found at https://www.allegrezza.info.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS by William Allegrezza / Meritage Press / 978-0-97941190-8 / 117 pps / $16.00

I have often wondered what a man has felt once I had left his life. What thoughts would fill his days, what memories would plague his heart. Did I want to be a ghost? Did I want to haunt his every attempt at finding love again? Did I want to be the enigma that she forever has to contend with? After reading Allegrezza’s brutally honest coming to terms with his own loss, I now hope that I am none of the above. Not since Ethan Hawke’s “The Hottest State” have I read such undaunted, unabashed professions of foresaken love.
Segmented in 3 chapters, the first is a series of numbered laments of voids, of memories, of obvious dismay. These are more than love-sick sobs, they are gut-wrenching wails, questioning their reason and the very existence of the cause. There is realization, as in these lines from the poem “XVIII.”;

i am shamed
desiring something when nothing
remains
fragments scattered along wood
floors do not constitute a story
nor does praise signal connection

And also in “XXVII.”

i waded through years of dreams
the only way to continue and not
deny that my road was lost
that you were no beatrice and this
was no pathway to salvation

What’s the saying about a woman scorned? It’s like the first time I heard Clapton begging to “Layla”... I had to find out who that woman was. The hints were there. Nothing vague, no real facade. He was honestly besotted & in anguish over his desire. In “XXX.” there is resemblance;

i am well aware for whom i
write these words
Was she? I want to know. Did she read these poems? Did she realize what love was available to her? And when she did, did she turn around? In “color dreams”, we get a possible, but not a definite.

a tired hand shuffles through papers
the room is in shadow

“I could never explain events to her afterwards”

pearls water off ithaca
paintings phones children’s pictures

plants sound with wind through leaves
a cat perches on a ledge watching

“It took years for her to disintegrate”

he remembers watching the fishers
in the port of nauplion haul in a day’s work

a pen rests in a drawer
under light from a broken lamp

“I planned but never understood how it would feel”

candy jars memories spatulas
colors dreams.

If most men feel, emote as Allegrezza does here, there’s been a dire misconception going on. I owe you an apology.

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Molding thoughts and emotions like a bird in flight

FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS is an elegant collection of poems by the very gifted William Allegrezza, a poet from Chicago whose influence is being felt by his students and admirers of fine contemporary poetry both here and in Europe. This particular book, published in 2007 may be difficult to find but the rewards for those persistent in searching for copies will by amply rewarded.

Not only are Allegrezza's thoughts, fleeting concepts that seem born of fragile air so easily do they take flight on the page, original and perfectly molded into the poetic form, they are also made visually beautiful in the way he places his poems on the printed page. Reading both his long poems and short moments of distilled imagery and passion is much like listening to a poetry reading: his spacing of phrases and words on the page allow moments for breathing, for reflection on the at times profound references he is suggesting. His 41 page poem 'Go-between' superimposes fragments from Dante's 'Vita Nuova', incorporating these fragments in a subtle manner that invests the poem with a sense of connectedness to the past while spinning extraordinary ideas like ether in the atmosphere. In the long poem "Gathering Forces' Allegrezza takes leaping risks in the combination of typeface and font size to jolt the eye into following his sparsely placed bursts of inspiration.

But when the poet simply captures a moments in a short poem the impact is visceral as in 'uses'

someday we'll manage to find
the yes or no
among the scattered bits of an
otherwise useless symphony
and there waiting
will be the last
survivors of the great war
on park benches
discussing the end of
human life as though it's
nothing special
as though our concepts
rely only on our concepts
and we are not really
flowers thrown up through
brackish ground in a
chamber of death.

Or in 'surface'

i imagine your skin
under mine
as fire crackles
and lights dim.

William Allegrezza's works belong in the library of all those who find restoration in the poetry of our contemporary poets. He is a gifted craftsman.

Grady Harp

[Karl Nehring · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book as a Goodreads giveaway and have expended some effort in reading and re-reading the poetry contained within. Although my initial reaction to this book was that the poetry was simply too abstract and detached from ordinary experience to communicate effectively, I pressed on. In the end, however, I simply found myself unable to relate to the author's use of language. Although there were a few phrases that caught my attention and stimulated my imagination, they were few and far between. By and large, then, this was not an enjoyable read, more like 1.5 stars than 2. Your mileage may vary.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Allegrezza's poems are beautiful and imaginative. It has been a pure pleasant journey from the beginning flowing dreamily to the end. We really need to savor the flows of the beautiful poems to experience the deep meaning the poet wants to imply.

He didn't just write a poem, he also placed his words imaginatively, with spaces, columns, big and small letters, thin and bold letters.

Reading his work is really a joy and great enrichment to the intellectual self. Thank you for the fantastic masterpiece, Allegrezza!

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not read a lot of poetry in general, but this book really pulled me in and I was struck by the honesty and emotion that it was able to convey. I felt that I was able to connect with the poems and apply them to my own life. I enjoyed this book quite a bit.

[Dip214]

ha

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Won this on first reads.

Very thought provoking poems. It will be read again and again.