In Slender Human Weight, Sue Chenette explores a world both familiar and mysterious. She finds, in her mother's attic, in the French countryside, and in her own home, the richness of physical objects as they embody what is felt, dreamed, longed for, and remembered.
Sue Chenette's poems have that rare quality of being lit from within. Reading them is like discovering someone dancing, perfectly poised, alone in a room. Chenette offers us privileged glimpses into interior life, not merely described, but lived. It is curious that we speak of being graceful in quite a different context than being in a state of grace, but Chenette's poetry, burnished, delicate, but sturdy, shows us both. Lucid, yet full of the mystery of complex adult emotions,
Slender Human Weight is alluring and wise.
Molly Peacock
Sue Chenette's poems are gorgeously precise, writing a 'careful cursive' through the past, putting memories in their place.
Slender Human Weight is full of the most elegant ghostings, as if Chenette herself were the life force, her sights on everything, from fruit bowls to faith, from buttons to full-blown love.
Barry Dempster
Awards
- ReLit Awards (longlisted)