When The Heart Needs A Stunt Double – Poems by Diane Decillis
Who wouldn’t want a metaphorical stunt double to take the perilous fall that comes with the pain of loss or profound disappointment? The poems in When the Heart Needs a Stunt Double by Diane DeCillis consider resourceful ways in which we become our own stunt double and explore through a poet’s eyes the anatomy of the mind, body, and soul.
Although many of these poems investigate loss and heartbreak, this book is not about being a victim. It’s about how we not only survive our most challenging moments but how we thrive in spite of them. These are poems about all of the ways our hearts both help us and betray us during major life events: dealing with divorce, the death of a loved one, separation from those closest to you, or with the agonizing experience of memory loss. The speaker appreciatively observes “how hard the muscle has worked / lifting and lowering the weight of love and sorrow.” DeCillis writes that loss can feel like your heart is limping “like a wounded animal / before you sink into the shelter of your own shadow.” But with every loss in these poems comes rebirth—a beautiful, sensory-rich wildflower garden of new breaths and experiences. The character of the heart is depicted as a piece of human anatomy at the same time it’s portrayed as its own world; an entire planet. DeCillis personifies the mitral, aortic, and pulmonary valves, describing our bodies as blooming with vegetation, a recursive image of living things thriving inside living things. – Wayne State University Press
Diane DeCillis’s latest collection, When the Heart Needs a Stunt Double, is that rare book that is both funny and momentous. Her lyrical evocations of people and places in Southeast Michigan are full of empathy, tenderness, and whimsical irony. DeCillis captures our humanity in all its moods—no small task. – Cal Freeman, author of Fight Songs
When a vase breaks, the Japanese mend it with gold, which is called kintsugi, or precious scars, and that’s what Diane DeCillis is doing in this beautiful collection, taking the wounds of living and turning them on the wheel of her heart and mind. Damaged children mingle with Franz Liszt, Poe, Edvard Munch, and Pablo Neruda with ‘the crazed puma prowling in the hollow street of hunger.’ There is a plentitude in these pages that satisfies poetic appetite. Get ready to dig in. – Barbara Hamby, author of Holoholo
Paperback, 112pp, 6×9 in. Wayne State University Press.
NOTE ABOUT SIGNED BOOKS:
Signed books will be shipped on or before the April 24th, Bookstore Day Event with six poets. We will fill each order until they run out.
$ 16.99
