Rachel Reviews: Afternoons of Suspended Love by Stefania Lucchetti

Poetry traditionally concerns itself with the passion of youth, reinforcing the idea that sensuality and vigour as part of a loving relationship are the domain of young lovers, more than any other. This view is challenged in this collection from Lucchetti, where she writes poems from her own experience, exploring the love of a mature relationship, post children. I found this refreshing and admire her enormously for her openness and candour.

Because that's what this collection is: intimate and honest. I felt like I was being invited into a world of which I have knowledge and given a warm welcome through the open lens that Lucchetti provides. It's not voyeuristic but for mature readers, it feels like validation, an affirmation that life is not on the wane but is still full of heat. That's not to say that there are not challenges in this and there are poems that cover the tensions that arise from marriages that can last years, the landscape of which can shift, requiring adaptation from couples in order for their continued togetherness to prosper especially if issues resurface.

Stand out poems for me were Ploughed furrows and Dusting off love. Ploughed furrows has a suggestive title which misleads, the poem being about word play first and foremost before the sowing of alternative seed, a sensual connectedness between a couple through words and shared memories being the precursor to expressing that love physically, touch being secondary, a product rather than the initiator.

Dusting off love is about the tension that arises from familiarity but how, like waves, this can dissipate through small gestures. To say I could relate to this would be an understatement.

There is depth here in Lucchetti's examination which is transferred into lyricism, augmented by the Italian version of the same poem next to the English. I can't understand Italian but I still read the poems, rolling the words around as I thought they should sound, the English version providing me with the meaning. There may be an argument here in making this an auditory book so that the Italian, the latin language of lovers, could be really savoured.

This book is not just for readers in their middle age. This is love, matured and bedded in, but it still has flavour and should be tasted by all for its richness, vitality and strength. It is a window into love in a different manifestation.

Rachel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This review was first published on Reedsy Discovery where I was privileged to read it as an ARC: