In a volume of presentations at the 2012 International Colloquium of American Studies, on poetry in the United States, Marcel Arbeit, noted student on southern culture, writes, “Poems as Part of Everyday Life According to Fred Chappell.” On point, Arbeit writes that the North Carolina laureate thought that “bad poetry,...has too much pathos, lacks spontaneity, and is devoid of meaning...written by someone for whom poetry is no joy.”
Paulette Rochelle-Levy book avoids that trap with a blend of personal - at times embarrassingly private - reflections on her life and the conditions that plague early 21st century humankind. Longing and Belonging is an invitation to wholeness written by a poetic soul that drags its fractures into the light to make sense of an existence that plunges into nonsense.
This work of ten years and nine months is my Godwrestling, a challenging and joyous struggle through the solitude of the pandemic….This is written so that you may gain strength and wisdom for your own journey. There are so many places where we meet, even when we think we are lost and lonely.
With that, the self-described dancer, Jewish Spiritual Leader, and wholistic psychotherapist, walks readers through heartbreak, loss, cancer, love, loneliness, rejection, and disappointments toward belonging. Rochelle-Levy weaves a poetic memoir that seduces the wounded, lost and lonely - much of the current U.S. population - to follow her footsteps until they find themselves on the path.
The organized 339-page PDF, ARC provided opens each of nine chapters on topics such as, “Saying Goodbye,” Healing” or “On Time”, then tosses in poems that expand her thoughts others dance alone. For example, “Psalm for Renewal” begins as a lament over the southern California fire losses where flames settle as “ashes and putrid air” on “blackened earth”, then ends with an entreaty that "dance is a prayer for healing".
From that point, the poet offers that the losses in all of life add up, then provides a stern lesson for poets and healers. “There is wisdom in insecurity, for real security does not really exist,” she declares.