Pentimento

by Alysse Kathleen McCanna

"Winner of the 2017 Gold Line Press Poetry Chapbook Competition"

"Pentimento is a well-crafted chapbook that contemplates the frayed end of things just as masterfully as it examines love's illuminated beginnings. Each poem carefully weaves a greater narrative of what it means to lose someone -- in spirit, in body, while also exploring what it means to leave and be left behind. This chapbook is earthy, painterly, and introspective, soberly interrogating trauma, war, guilt, and death while also steadfastly celebrating love, family, and the gleaming importance of joy."
- Safiya Sinclair

47 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Mary Ardery · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I most appreciate about this chapbook is the way it talks about romantic relationships without oversimplifying or reaching false resolutions. There are poems about the speaker falling in love with another man while she is married. There are poems thinking about a lover’s dead wife: “Joanie shot herself / in June— / I met her husband / 10 months later...” The presence of the late wife’s absence is consistent and compelling for both the speaker and reader. The short poem “First Wife” reads, in its entirety: “I wonder / if she watches me // with gratitude / or malice— // if, somewhere, / she is pinching sand // out of the top / of my hourglass, // or his.” Food/cooking is another theme throughout this book. There is a distinct speaker and voice, but the poems themselves change tones and forms in a way that keeps everything fresh throughout.

[Courtney Whited · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is magic between and within these pages. If you want to know what it feels like to sit underneath an oak tree in the fall immediately after a rain storm, pick up this book and read it. McCanna's poetry takes your breath away, makes you feel validated, and provides comfort in the most uncomfortable of circumstances.

[David Anthony Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alysse McCanna's chapbook, "Pentimento" sings with the true songs of a poet who has lived and paid attention. Having experienced life's tragedies, she is without self-pity but not hard hope. While the poems are very personal, as is true of good poetry, the human experience that we all live in our own journeys shines through.