Overview

SHOULD HAVE KNOWN observes the give and take of relationships-between spouses/lovers/ parents/ children/ friends, even works of art and history-with clear-eyed reflection and wry humor. Here are poems of loss and depression, survival and resilience, and epiphanies that drive new (and multiple) perspectives. Marking a journey from conforming to the expectations of others to feisty self-knowledge, Should Have Known invites readers to engage the world in their own terms with poems that underscore a shift from the binary of Pythagorean opposites to a more nuanced ballet of the continuum.

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Reviews

Most of us Should Have Known a lot more than we do, and many writers moan their slips and falls, but Linda Arntzenius portrays her mistakes and misalliances with wit, verve and sassiness. When her Narcissus declares his leap into an ice-cold stream more satisfactory than his making love to her on a chilly mountainside or when her Pygmalion finishes his hammering and stares at her with ""cow-eyed adoration,"" we laugh. If Arntzenius's he is ""sinister,"" her she is always ""dexter"" in this playful ""Pythagorean dance of opposites."" These skillful poems portray Arntzenius's lifelong ballet; they delight and satisfy even when ""sorrows linger/like the scent/of orange blossom."" -Lois Marie Harrod is widely published in literary journals and online. Her latest work is The Bed the Size of a Small Country . This fine selection of poems is remarkably wide-ranging both in subject matter and geography. From the Scottish Highlands to Princeton, from classical myth to childhood, from relationships to self-portraits, be prepared to be taken on a journey into the lyrical, the witty, the unblinking and the downright sensuous. -John Glenday is the author of four poetry collections. His works has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books, The Scotsman, and Ploughshares, to name but a few. In these precisely crafted poems Linda Arntzenius masterfully demonstrates how the ability to adopt a well-practiced wry perspective can help us to resiliently survive any number of the rueful experiences that seem unavoidable to all still innocent enough to long for love. -Jim Haba is a visual artist, poet and founding director of the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.

Author Information

Linda Arntzenius is a freelance magazine writer with a background in philosophy and an urge to wander. She's lived in London, Los Angeles, Cambridge (MA), Pittsburgh (PA) and Princeton (NJ). Her poems have been published in US1 Worksheets, Paterson Literary Review, Slant, Exit 13, Kelsey Review, Journal of New Jersey Poets and NonBinary Revue, among other literary journals. This is her first chapbook.

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