Playing The Part: Collected Poems by Betty Krasne

In Playing the Part the writer’s uncompromising gaze takes in difficult realities of relationships: children and parents, parents and children, partners caught by conflicting expectations. While the first part renders ambivalence and alienation as a darker side of family, later poems take the reader from the drama of domestic life to an expanded sense of possibility. The world opens beyond family constraints and Playing the Part becomes a story of transformations, with connection replacing isolation and new roles supplanting old ones.

“Playing The Part is an eclectic weave of observations about family. Through the lens of poetry, Krasne transforms difficult phases of life into remarkable beauty. Her heartfelt studies in such poems as “Women of Mexico” and “Wonderwoman on the Wires” are examples of ways her thoughtful offerings capture life’s rhythms. Passionate experience embraced with considerable love characterizes the work in this collection. Krasne’s new book is a remarkable achievement.”

—Barrie Kavasch, author of Ancestral Threads, Hands of Time, and Haiku Moments.

BETTY KRASNE is the author of five previous books: A Dangerous Thing, A Memoir of Learning and Teaching, and Body Parts, Stories. Also, under the name Betty K. Levine: Hex House, Hawk High, and The Great Burgerland Disaster.

Playing The Part: Collected Poems
by Betty Krasne
Cover design by Rick Simner
Cover photo by Antonio M. Rosario
Paperback, 88 pages
$15.00
ISBN: 978-1537317748
Published October 2016.

Available for purchase at House of Books in Kent, CT, and through Amazon.

Purchase Playing The Part