The Size of Our Bed - by Jacqueline Derner Tchakalian (Paperback)

About the Book

In these poems are letters to a dead husband, Armenian, English/German ancestry, marriage, illness and death, recovery and the bloody spine of war, always war, with hard won wisdom, acceptance and protest.

Book Synopsis

Following the arc of a woman's life, The Size of Our Bed begins with the title of its last poem, "Letter to a Dead Husband about the Size of Our Bed." The remaining poems traverse their past, the narrator's future.

Divided into sections from childhood and family, marriage, illness and death, recovery, acceptance and strength--contrasted with war--The Size of Our Bed offers poetry that is generous yet unflinching, personal, sometimes ironic and intense, yet resound with a reverence for both the joys and betrayals of life. These are poems of hard won wisdom and insight. They are emotionally introspective, even transformative.

Not all questions are answered.

Review Quotes

"Jacqueline Tchakalian's The Size of Our Bed is powered by the pain of loss, but leavened by careful craft and a heart that, in being true to itself, cannot be permanently cast down. I celebrate how these poems rise from the ashes of grief, triumphant and full of life."
--Charles Harper Webb

About the Author

Jacqueline Tchakalian, a poet and visual artist, has lived in five different states and seven cities in California. Trained as a visual artist, she discovered writing poetry later in life, at which time she quit painting for ten years. She currently lives in Woodland Hills, CA, and has no interest in moving again.