Undressing the Heart by Christine Orchanian Adler
$14.99
The poems in Undressing The Heart are filled with the everyday drama of human experience. Every line is infused with lyrical precision, and lucid narratives that at times are often tender and always haunting. These are poems that take you on a journey towards emotional truths – journeys that you will want to take over and over again.
–Kevin Pilkington, author of Where You Want To Be: New & Selected Poems
Christine O. Adler’s first poetry collection invites us to journey through a landscape of complex emotions and situations. In expertly crafted poems, she underscores moments of gravitas and lightness that are part of the human condition. When the speaker in “Cocoon” says, “I listen to the weatherman tell me what to count on,” one understands at the bone what this means. Readers can count on a glimpse of “just what color life is,” and, like the backlit geese in “January, Jack” urge with hope as they fly toward the golden hub of sun: “Get on, get on.”
–Linda Simone, author of The River Will Save Us
Cerrissa Kim –
Christine Orchanian Adler’s Undressing the Heart is a chapbook filled with small tugs and emotional windfalls that unearth the joys and trials of life. Each poem contains visions, scents, and sounds that poignantly paint moments in time. Her words have a perfect cadence and charisma that keeps me returning, each time seeing new beauty in every stanza.
-Cerrissa Kim, editor and contributor of Mixed Koreans: Our Stories
Elizabeth Sumner Wafler (verified owner) –
This welterweight-sized volume packs a huge punch! I know little about poetry, nothing about writing it, but this author’s work struck me as so personal I felt I’d popped inside her head and heart. Each page is filled with emotion, whether nostalgia, joy, or pain. I especially enjoyed “First Love” and the oh-so relatable childhood tasting of honeysuckle blossoms. And “The Fourth of July” with the words “summer’s wet breath.” What palpable imagery! The poem “Middle Space” made my chest constrict. The universal desire to hold our grown children close to us really resonates here. And “Roots”—oh my goodness, this one beautifully demonstrates the author’s love of nature and of the earth—it’s grossly gorgeous! Last, amongst the brilliant imagery in this collection is my favorite gem “. . . Knobby trunks lined, bases-up like brushes hung to dry.” Undressing the Heart is enough to turn anyone into a lover of poetry.