The third in a series of chapbooks largely dedicated to the author's deceased wife, Body English is about journeys, momentum, movement, questioning all that exists around you and moving with that into a new direction. The story toys with the idea of reincarnation, spirituality, spirits moving from one body into another, childhoods relived through the souls of other children. Joseph Verrilli's late wife, Janet, was fascinated with her own childhood, revealing it to her husband as she was 19 years his senior, trying to convey and share the differences of the time, growing up just after the turn of the century, how contrasting their childhoods were, almost 20 years apart. This book brings to life Janet's story of growing up, almost as a poetic commentary of Betty Smith's A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, a book Janet often said described her life as a child. In Body English, Joseph, working as a teacher's aide, observes, follows, and becomes entwined with the lives of some of the young girls whose spirits and childish freedoms match Janet's, questioning the possibility of Janet breathing life into them, contemplating fate, what's meant to be, who's to say, and how do we know? This book, containing both poetry and prose, is an excellent emotional journey and a must-have for your collection. Copies can now be purchased online; or through the mail for $5 (plus $2 US shipping; $3 out-of-US shipping) via cash, check, or money order made out to Alternating Current, PO Box 398058, Cambridge MA 02139 USA; or via PayPal with the email address alt.current@gmail.com. All authors on our press receive royalties for each copy sold, and each purchase comes with a free random book from the archives while we clean house.
This book includes:
Poems and prose by Joseph Verrilli:
Story
Portrait of Two Young Women (Certainties)
One Child in Particular
The Rhythm of a Saturday
TALL TALES and wind chimes
ENIGMATIC CHILD
Innocuous
BEFORE THE DANCE (for Francoise)
The Young Girl As Protagonist
ADAGIO
MEMORY AS QUICKSAND for Mrs. Lucille Overby
MALAISE: MELANCHOLY for Marie Kazalia
Woman in Various Stages of Redress
Pre-Conceived Notion
CHOREOGRAPHY
LEGACY
A Face Almost Forgotten
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