Through the Oak Tree

In his Book of Nightmares, Galway Kinnell argues that the core value of poetry is a tenderness towards existence, and that tenderness can be found throughout Susan Gerardi Bello's new book, Through the Oak Tree. No stranger to the nightmares inherent in this human condition, the poet explores the challenges of childhood, as she and then her son have experienced them: the joy and perils of new discoveries; the loss of innocence that defines growing up and finding one's place in the world. "What can I offer in response?" Susan Gerardi Bello says of her son's boisterous singing, and answers "my own voice singing." This is a book of endearing bravado and life-affirming tenderness. We need such books Christopher Bursk, author of The First Inhabitants of ArcadiaHow prominently music is featured in Through the Oak Tree, Susan Gerardi Bello's poignant collection of poems As we travel with the poet from childhood into adolescence and motherhood, we hear always in the background the old 45s and cassettes-Led Zeppelin and The Smiths; Prince and Elvis; Janis Joplin, reduced to an image on a postage stamp, yet with the "soul-cry" of her voice still "more powerful than the train wheels scraping against metal track." In these poems Bello shows through each stage of life a keen awareness of the body's changes and of the contrasts between sun shimmering through treetops and "the smell of leaf mold and ashes" underneath.Joseph A. Chelius, Bucks County Poet LaureateSusan Gerardo Bello takes us with her on a journey through childhood and adolescence, through early experiences as a woman, through marriage and childbirth and motherhood. What emerges is a complex and nuanced picture of each stage of a woman's life. It is a picture that forms a connection between the poet and the reader, a connection so powerful it would be difficult to forget. Through the Oak Tree is a collection of poems that belongs on every nightstand. Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Winner of the American Book Award