Shameless, Poems by Suzanne Roberts
Suzanne
Roberts' Shameless explores the intimate landscape of relationship
and loss, tracing a journey from connection to solitude to larger awareness.
Quiet, yet fierce, these lyrics paint a memorable portrait of self-rediscovery.
Sample Poems by Suzanne Roberts
"Suzanne Roberts' collection, Shameless, contains poems of infinite scope, taking us to places we long to visit but, normally, refuse to book passage, simply because the price is too high for the self-discovery the journey offers. Here, however, the poet graciously agrees to peel away the protection we often employ, demanding 'seven layers of larval skin' from her readers who are fortunate enough to take the trip." --Bart Edelman, author of The Last Mojito and Alphabet of Love, and editor of Eclipse
"Usually, if one is shameless, she is defined by her bold lack of shame, her refusal to conduct herself with a sense of decency--she is perhaps a shameless liar, a shameless promoter, a shameless hussy. But Suzanne Roberts' poetry embraces the sexual journeys of her narrators, reclaiming 'shamelessness,' as a place in which there is no shame, where there should be no shame. Roberts' voice is instead full of sass, savoir-faire, and self-confidence as her lyricism and narrative intermingle. Her control of the line, her exact and surprising imagery make her poems deliciously complex. Shameless is a powerful sensuous romp--intimate, funny, honest." --Denise Duhamel
"Suzanne Roberts' narrator intuits the subtle psychological borders that determine our behavior, especially when it comes to sexual love. Not only do her poems insinuate themselves into the hidden, unbound fields of play between people encountering each other, but they explore the rules each individual person plays by, even when that person doesn't know it herself. Her tightly controlled free verse poems set us on a strange, revelatory ride into the self." --Kevin Clark, author of In the Evening of No Warning and The Mind's Eye
Suzanne Roberts was born in New York and raised in Southern California. She was educated at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and the University of Nevada-Reno. She is the author of another poetry collection, Nothing to You (Pecan Grove Press, 2008), and her poems have been published in many literary journals, including ZYZZYVA, Spillway, Gulf Stream, Smartish Pace, and Eclipse. She lives in South Lake Tahoe, California and teaches English at Lake Tahoe Community College. For more information, visit her website at http://www.suzanneroberts.org
ISBN 978-1933456904, 96 pages, $17.00