Re-Coupling

"Dylan Thomas wrote, "Life always offers you a second chance." Harriet Shenkman’s collection “Re-Coupling” is about that second chance. Beginning with envy at a couple she sees at a Modigliani exhibit while suffering from loss of her husband “at a ripened age,” Shenkman’s narrative poetry tells the story of the process of meeting the new love, evoking red lingerie, dancing to Motown, good food, and good wine, notwithstanding hearing aids, illness, “six vials of prescription drugs,” and having to get out of bed to pee in the middle of the night. There is both skill and humor here. “Time itself, a gift,” Shenkman writes, this collection also a gift. We should all have this second grasp at the ring—here silver “un-wedding” rings—if/when we need that, and despite with whom we choose to be buried later. As poets we should all be able to render the ride as delightfully as Shenkman has."

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—Susana H. Case, author of If This Isn’t Love, Broadstone Book"