A Confederacy of Joy: Poems

From a conversation with a flight attendant to the view into a window from a coffee shop to an anniversary important to those who love ballet to a renovation project for an ungrateful client, Juan-Paolo Perre finds fertile ground in which to sow words to grow into lyrical poetry. Simple, ordinary moments or places or comments can provide impetus for Perre to write words of love. Persephone herself would find fascination with Perre’s use of a persimmons or pomegranates or arachnids as metaphors for love – certainly a male perspective. But all is not velvet and satin in this world of love – Perre reminds us of the sharp edges that come as part of the love and the anger and the indifference and the sadness that is born of the human condition. These are not poems for the faint of heart but for those who choose to live and love heartily and robustly with their eyes wide open. There is nothing ordinary or formulaic in this work that seems to meander through the chambers of the human heart, but a light shines through much of this as Perre strives to find the beauty in everything he sees or experiences.