Heartbreak Tree: Poems

by Pauletta Hansel

Heartbreak Tree is a poetic exploration of the intersection of gender and place in Appalachia. "There is a road, but the road is still inside you," the mature Hansel tells the girl she was, encouraging "You are trying. Remember." This book does the work of that remembering, honoring the responsibility of the poet to speak the forbidden stories of her own and other women's lives.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

Published March 17, 2022

About the author

Poet, Memoirist, Teacher and Editor Pauletta Hansel is the 2022 Writer-in-Residence for the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. She served as the first Poet Laureate of Cincinnati from April 2016 through March 2018.

Pauletta is author of nine poetry collections including Heartbreak Tree, released in March 2022 by Madville Publishing. Heartbreak Tree is a poetic exploration of the intersection of gender and place in Appalachia.

Reviews

[Cassie]

A really profound collapse of time, on looking back and through—a needle, a dip in the mountains, a body changed but not. A dutiful collection to girls and mothers and what once was and still is, ongoingness. A road away from the dirt driveway, but the clay still wet in the cracks of a palm. I love this collection for what it remains.

[Shawna Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gorgeous, epic collection, and one I hold in the highest regard. All of Hansel's poems are worthy of time and attention, but this book might be my favorite. Timely, even providential, reading Heartbreak Tree was validating and shattering, a shot in the arm, a blissful afternoon on a Kentucky mountaintop in the presence of embodied contemplative wisdom. Hansel's voice is so relevant, so contemporary and earnest and bold and true, that I cannot get enough of it. Buy this book! It's one you'll want to give every woman you love.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t read much poetry, but this was my non-fiction book club selection. I found several of the poems very moving. Most interesting was that the author attended our book club meeting and learning more about her and her writing process was fascinating.
In talking with Pauletta about the decline and deaths of our mothers, she suggested her book, Palindrome, which intend to read next.

[Bill Glose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even before we open this book, the title warns what lies within will be bittersweet, its Heartbreak Tree rooted in ground seeded with regret and unfulfilled desires (When hurt is all that’s handed down / you learn to claim it). Yet, these poems also luxuriate in the comforts and personal connections that only home can offer, “the unseen river that silvers / through our dreams.” The early poems serve as a captivating reminiscence that transports the reader to hardscrabble life in rural Kentucky (What people in town remember about my family’s home / was the dirt in the fenced front yard where no grass / could stay grown). But as the book progresses, the poems settle into middle-aged reckoning and acceptance, often told via letters the author writes to her 15-year-old self (If we are skin, you are peeled bark of sycamore long gone from / me. If we are bone, you are always mine). Pauletta Hansel delivers a rust-edged nostalgia that portrays both a life of wistful yearnings and an acceptance of limitations, an ever-present dichotomy that leaves her examining most things from multiple angles (What moves us onward is the same, / sometimes, as what breaks us to the ground). The skill with which she traverses this seeming contradiction makes this captivating collection a must read.

[Jennifer Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I practically devoured this in one sitting. Hansel digs into the rich soil of her Appalachian family history, interwoven with current events, to trace the "heartbreak tree" that connects the human family. There are lines here that will astonish you and images that will stay with you long after you put the book down.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This astonishing collection has been “carefully assembled from flowers, dirt, graveyards, family memories, and letters to the poet’s younger [15-year-old] self,” writes Alison Luterman in the back cover blurb. “It’s a love story to a place and a people, an excavation, a time capsule, a fierce inquiry and a song.” Borne of the hardscrabble mountains of Kentucky coal country, these poems have a distinctly Appalachian air, yet the poet’s honest, plain-spoken voice speaks the common language of universal truth.

Favorite Poems:
“The Road”
“Returned, Addressee Unknown”
“It snows across the mountains”
“Postcard from Age 60”
“Story” (4)
“Pattern”
“Grandmother Questions in This Time of Social Distance”
“The Blessing”
“Dear Poem”
“Blocking the Dead”
“Story” (5)
“Me Too”
“This Is the Poem That Has Been Staring at You for Some Time Now”
“Interview”
“Complicit (A Brief History)”
“Unto the Least of These”
“To Break a Thing”
“I Confess”
“Story” (6)
“To You”

[Alissa Sammarco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just loved these poems!

[Beth Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written poetry that takes the reader to the heart of so many shared human experiences.