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After
24 pages, Paperback
Published February 28, 2017
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October 2, 2017
While he was growing up in Queens in a large Italian family trying to make ends meet, the neighborhood shifted from mostly white, European immigrants to blacks and Latinos. Joe embraced the change, feeling more welcome among groups who didn’t bully him and call him names. Readers are thankful he had that experience, too, as it
spices up these memoir poems. Ironically, he wound up moving to a small town in the Midwest, surrounded once again by a sea of white. The 19 poems in this chapbook each begin with the word “After” and highlight some important change in Benevento’s life. While the book is short, each poem is meaty at 26 lines that fill the entire page. He invented a form of five, five-line stanza with a bring-it-home ending that stands alone. He begins with “After I Almost Died in Infancy” and ends with “After All,” though we hope he’ll have many more poems to add to our libraries. My favorites are “After Realizing My Mother Had Been Cursing All Along in Italian,” “After the Neighborhood Started to Change,” and his most vulnerable poem, “After the First Time I Cheated on My Wife.”
spices up these memoir poems. Ironically, he wound up moving to a small town in the Midwest, surrounded once again by a sea of white. The 19 poems in this chapbook each begin with the word “After” and highlight some important change in Benevento’s life. While the book is short, each poem is meaty at 26 lines that fill the entire page. He invented a form of five, five-line stanza with a bring-it-home ending that stands alone. He begins with “After I Almost Died in Infancy” and ends with “After All,” though we hope he’ll have many more poems to add to our libraries. My favorites are “After Realizing My Mother Had Been Cursing All Along in Italian,” “After the Neighborhood Started to Change,” and his most vulnerable poem, “After the First Time I Cheated on My Wife.”
Displaying 1 of 1 review