Nec

by Cathleen Chambless

Poetry. LGBTQ Studies. Latino/Latina Studies. NEC (ROMANTIC) is the death of classic Romanticism, the notion of the way things should be and should have been, the death of the trope "hopeless romantic." From the first poem a transformation of the artist begins, the shedding of the old self in to a new beginning in which Cathleen knows the path, and illuminates a trail for the reader to follow. NEC(ROMANTIC) is the death of the ideal, the binary conventions between the American Dream fantasy and the fraction of its mentality of "only this one way." Using confessional styles mixed with classical poetry archetypes, Cathleen's true force is the power to forgive oneself while never forgetting how she, as the person and the artist, got to where she is; how a person can hold on to love while losing the one they love.

Genres: Poetry

98 pages, Paperback

Published February 12, 2016

Reviews

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chambliss writes original, pyrotechnic poetry that is politically very queer. I really enjoyed it.

[Kristen (belles_bookshelves) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"How do I extract a human heart? With time and trust."

Wow. A friend from work lent me this after I told them I like poetry. I had never heard of Cathleen Chambless, but her work is honestly amazing.

It's very vivid and wrenching and real. Equal parts prose and memoir. You get lines like, "But where, who, & what I am now; belongs only to me" and "I’d love you even when the world ends, even when all that is left is an abyss." It's very poignant and honest.