Nature and the Personal in Tremulous Hinge

Adam Giannelli has always been a fascinating writer to this reader. The author was one of my closest friends upon graduating from Oberlin in 2001, and our friendship reached its peak during our shared years living in Virginia getting our MFA's. It is a true pleasure watching him continue to shine as a poet, and I am totally bias in this review.

Giannelli’s particular brand of friendship and communication is not always as verbally progressive as his poetry. It seems he saves some of his best lines for the page, evidenced in Tremulous Hinge.

Gianelli starts off strong here, with a near mic drop of a poem, as “Stutter” addressed the author’s life long speech impediment, his verbal work-arounds to some more difficult words (“Since I couldn’t say Cleveland, I said Ohio”) and his insecurity about his stutter.

Kudos to Giannelli for embracing his stutter. I heard him read this in Boston several years ago, and he wisely read the poem first, so that all other stutters that occurred during the reading were understood, empowered.

Many of the other poems here reflect on nature, capturing it in new and surprising ways. The work of these poems is clear and admirable, but Giannelli shines when he focuses on the personal. In addition to “Stutter,” standouts here are “My Insomnia” and “For Nashaly,” where the author lets the reader in on his own psyche, not just what he observes of the natural world.