Sorry So Sorry - An Arresting Collection of Poems

 I've been reading a lot of poetry lately (and writing it, too), and Sorry So Sorry, The Complete Collection, by Angie Outis, is a beautiful discovery, although a thread of sadness runs through all the poems. ("The Complete Collection" because parts of the book have been previously published as separate booklets. Now they are all together, tracing the course of the author's dissolving marriage.) Angie Outis is a pseudonym, for purposes of privacy, since these poems were written during the author's divorce.

             This lovely collection of 78 poems actually unfolds like a novella in verse. Each poem is connected to the one before and the one after, like pearls on a string. The language is elegant, yet simple; spare, but full to bursting with restrained emotion as the protagonist gradually awakens to the reality of her life. 

            The book opens on her 30^thbirthday, but her awakening actually began a year earlier when an outside incident with her husband revealed a violent streak. She has always been a dutiful wife and mother, following the precepts of her church: Women are obedient. They don’t question. A husband’s love is enough to cover any unease in the home life. He is the one who knows best. In her case, he’s also a leader in his church and community. 

            But is he as loving as she always thought? After visitors come to the house (no spoilers here) she also has to wonder if she even knows who he is. The poems throb with pain as they trace the insidious deterioration of the relationship. He is not loving. He is not kind. He’s a stranger. She’s afraid of him and makes plans to leave. Her inner strength grows—and grow it must, because friends, parents, and the church are against the choice she makes. (The title, Sorry So Sorry, highlights the guilt she feels for disrupting everyone’s life to find her own.)

            I especially appreciate how the author avoids pitfalls of melodrama or cliché. The wife’s journey progresses like an opening flower, showing how a once shrinking life can finally bloom.

You can learn more about the author and her other works on her Amazon author page HERE:

Thanks for stopping by.  Do you like to read poetry? If so, what kind? Free verse? Rhyme? And who is your favorite poet? Do you write poetry? If so, what kind? For adults? For children?