Overview

Relearning the Body is Not for the Weak Aging, as they say, is not for the weak, but sometimes it is a force to be reckoned with. What happens when the body you have always known starts challenging you and you must negotiate with your feet, your memories, your whole physical self? In Relearning the Body, we follow the speaker through the changes and challenges of learning and relearning an ever-evolving physical and emotional Self. By inviting the body and the mind into conversations about issues of aging, family, and the Self, the speaker in Relearning the Body shows us that acceptance, while hard, is grace.

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Reviews

The sinew that holds this sequence together is not simply ""the body;"" it is the female form, one that begins with ""a happy girl / in denim overalls / on a rusty / swing-set, braids flying."" These are poems of a physical and emotional hunger that is feminine, but the sort of feminine that sings alto and drags its red sneakers in the dirt. It is a woman wearing armor who wishes to speak and to love without apology. It is a body intimate with pain but also with lust. Through these poems, Carlene Gadapee ""speaks of truth, of oaths broken and debts / to pay,"" and one can't help but want to lean in and listen. -Meg Kearney, author of All Morning the Crows What does it mean to ""relearn"" what you already knew? The feminine body-its previous knowledge, myths, and its own becoming-is explored with a fusion of care, vitriol, and poetic prowess. This speaker navigates life's (sometimes cruel) lessons, all with a sense of humor and a validation of self-worth. In Relearning the Body, Gadapee shows us how, ""A cracked / payphone receiver dangles before you, a sad / weight at the end of the line that no one will / answer."" But for us, and for Gadapee, the hard-won answer is always poetry. -Sarah Audsley, author of Landlock X Carlene Gadapee's Relearning the Body shepherds us from childhood, fat lips, and Saint Thomas Acquinas to Greek mythology and women's bodies; from flotsam and Sylvia Path to Monty Python and the diary of Jane Eyre; from women's work to laundry to Penelope, and finally, to blessings. These poems-about the uncertainty and vulnerability of being human-remind us that moments really do help us survive, and that small victories ultimately carry us through a lifetime. Generous, intelligent, and candid, this collection is a wonderful addition to contemporary poetry. -Tina Cane, author of Year of the Murder Hornet Wielding familiar tools of the poet with a new sense of energy and expertise, Carlene Gadapee's Relearning the Body transports us to vivid experience through bold music, precise linguistic build, and an intense awareness of breath and break. This collection addresses complexities of family, the strangeness of aging, the challenges of gender. Whether preparing for school lockdowns just before Covid sets in or watching broken dolls floating in the sea-""Don't rescue them.""-the speaker of Relearning the Body resonates with echoes of Homer's journey, of Plath and Keats and even Monty Python. Gadapee wins us over line by line, a vast, intricate web of poems woven together with skill, sharpness, a sense of control that springs the surprise of each emotional turn upon us. Any heart will find a home in this book; all will be charmed by Gadapee's breathtaking work. -Jennifer Militello, Poet Laureate of New Hampshire

Author Information

Poet and teacher Carlene M. Gadapee's body of work includes her chapbook, What to Keep (Finishing Line Press, 2025), and many poems and reviews found in anthologies and journals including Allium, Smoky Quartz, Touchstone, MockingOwl Roost, Vox Populi, and MicroLit Almanac. Carlene lives and works in northern New Hampshire, where she and her husband have a yard full of fruit trees and a busy beehive.

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