Instructions for Use - by Arlene Demaris (Paperback)

About the Book

Instructions for Use is an unflinching, elegantly crafted debut collection of intensely smart, deeply observant poems, by turns tender and brutal.

Book Synopsis

Instructions for Use is an unflinching, elegantly crafted debut collection of intensely smart, deeply observant poems, by turns tender and brutal: a meditation on what it means to carry a body with its physical and psychic scars through time. With beauty, humor, and an acrid toughness tonally bringing to mind Louise Glück as well as Henri Cole, Arlene DeMaris writes of perseverance in the face of loss, inheritance and loneliness, childlessness and grief, mortality and the wonderful, ferocious awe of being alive.

-Michael Dumanis

Review Quotes

Instructions for Use is an unflinching, elegantly crafted debut collection of intensely smart, deeply observant poems, by turns tender and brutal: a meditation on what it means to carry a body with its physical and psychic scars through time. With beauty, humor, and an acrid toughness tonally bringing to mind Louise Glück as well as Henri Cole, Arlene DeMaris writes of perseverance in the face of loss, inheritance and loneliness, childlessness and grief, mortality and the wonderful, ferocious awe of being alive.

-Michael Dumanis, Creature

In Instructions for Use, Arlene DeMaris invites us to prepare for "an afternoon of uncertain pleasures" that took me on a thought-provoking journey and I'm glad I went along.

Her hard-edged grandmother offers advice about cooking eel: "When they struggle to surface, slam the lid." An inner feisty voice urges, "Don't be afraid to lie." A particular favorite of mine is "Telling the Hive," where DeMaris turns the ancient ceremony of telling the bees of a death into a "relic of sweetness." Exceptional talent for detail is displayed in her description of "goats eating a wheelbarrow's worth of tomatoes, weird eyes half closed in ecstasy, jaws popping the red skins, pulp running into their beards." What other poet has written a poem entitled "About the Author" listing her current project as "Don't Forget to Breathe"? Creating delight and surprise like a fine wine, these complex and varied poems must be read slowly to savor them.

-Vivian Shipley, Slow Dancing with the Dark

In this wise, witty and moving collection, DeMaris contemplates the privileges and trials of aging-the body, mind and spirit all being implicated in the inevitable. Still, there are

consolations, and poetry, with its ability to transform experience into meaning, is one of them. DeMaris is a genius of description, and in these poems, she transforms the material world with language that is both adroit and beautiful. I am a fan of this book, and of this winning, worthy poet.

-Mark Wunderlich, God of Nothingness