What the Body Remembers

By Adele Slaughter and Adc(le Slaughter

Book Overview

Adele Slaughter's first book of poems, What the Body Remembers, was published by Story Line Press in 1994. It is an autobiographical collection of glimpses into a childhood fraught with familial violence, alcoholism, and trauma, and the life that has been led in its wake; the failure of a marriage and the experiences that forever mold us as human beings. Through all the abuse and suffering these poems portray, however, the driving theme behind What the Body Remembers never falters: the reader is left with an inspiring picture of courage, perseverance, femininity, and the survival of the truest self. The subject of the work remains always the poet, the speaker, even as great attention is drawn to the circumstance surrounding her, providing an impactful example of how our greatest pains may leave us changed, but not defined, and never defeated. Pat Monaghan called the book "a stunning debut volume."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586540793
• ISBN13: 9781586540791
• Release Date: May 2021
• Publisher: Story Line Press
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Beautiful Punch in the Gut

Like conversations with a trusted friend, Adele Slaughter's poems never trick or manipulate through language, but instead share openly without fear of judgement. Slaughter's comfort with what she shares is made apparent by her willingness to state her personal truths with a directness that superscedes embellishment. Woven throughout this volume are transformations; not grandiose epiphanies, but small, almost incidental shifts ensconsed within the cyclical nature of the self. Nothing is stagnant here. Memories materialize into resources - melancholy becomes catharsis. "The ghosts [she] lays down on [her] shedding self" are there to provide wholeness in the face of loss. In her strongest work, Slaughter speaks out from within her poems showing her own mindfulness of the trappings inherent in covering oneself over with words. ("But what is the story here - I hide behind myself giving you images.") "Poem to Save a Marriage" bypasses the conceit of poetry altogether to reveal the essence and purity of feeling - a plea at the most base level of being. She speaks directly using metaphor without romance and what the reader receives is a beautiful punch in the gut. In these poems, Slaughter does not see herself as a hero, nor honesty or art as heroic gestures. Yet the courage and humanity of her revelations are the heart and soul of this book and the gift that she heroically brings with this work.