Remembering the Truth
Janice Krasselt Tatter
September 2006
85 pages
paperback
ISBN 0-9785648-1-2
$12.95
Praise for Remembering the Truth
"In Remembering the Truth, Janice Krasselt Tatter writes with searing honesty about painful memories, especially her memories of a marriage that ended in divorce, but her poems do more than record her history of pain, they reveal the process of her healing. As she says in one of these remarkable poems, “memory saves us / from ourselves.” For Tatter, recovery of the past leads to recovery from the past. In this powerful debut collection, she takes us on this path of recovery and helps us remember our own truth."
--David Jauss, author of You Are Not Here and Improvising Rivers
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"Ms. Tatter spares herself nothing and crafts her words with knife-edge honesty. Whether remembering family rituals or the emptiness of a childless marriage, raw emotions emerge to touch and tantalize readers.... Ms. Tatter's work is shattering in its honesty and intensity. Her poetry is appealing and memorable, infused with "orgasmic anger / in ghostly echoes." If Janice Krasselt Tatter is an example of what readers can expect from Temenos Publishing, then I can hardly wait for future releases."
--Midwest Book Review
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“Janice Krasselt Tatter’s collection of poetry, Remembering the Truth, is filled with haunting honesty. Without using scorn, self-pity, or judgment, she portrays her memories with vivid images that leave the reader with a sense of raw immediacy.
"This is a brave book that addresses the power of intimacy and memory. Janice writes of subjects we all know- food, photos, vacations, neighbors, and then finds a way to make us feel as if we haven’t really known these things because she travels so deeply to show us that meal, that image, that beach, those people next door. These poems are a journey of experiences that add a new dimension to one’s daily existence.”
--Diane Payne, author of Burning Tulips
About the Author
Janice Krasselt Tatter graduated with a B.A. from University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1982. She graduated with an M.A. in English from Ohio University in 1984. Also an R.N., she held a variety of jobs after the M.A: college English instructor, grants proposal writer, and medical analyst for an insurance company. She wrote poetry intermittently until 2003 when she began to write full time. She is recipient of the Alma K. Daughtery Literary Award. Now in early retirement, she lives in Little Rock, Arkansas with her Boston Terrier, Buster.
Excerpt from Remembering the Truth
"Child"
Section I, p. 23
CHILD
Could be, maybe, might have been, never was
are words that describe my child.
Over years he has grown from his imaginative life
into my days and is as vivid to me now
as his reluctant father—20 now,
short, dark, intense, intelligent.
I tell him over and over how I wanted
to be his mother, how I grieve
his might have been, never was life,
never becoming more than one cell, never growing
his spirit into toes, fingers, heart, brain on a sonogram,
never finding himself in my arms, on my breasts.
I’ve actually named him.
And where is he when he’s not with me?
Was my David promised to another?
I look into brown eyes of 20-year-olds
and wonder sometimes
if he might recognize the one-half
who wanted to create him.
Book Club Discussion Questions
**Janice Krasselt Tatter is available to meet with your group in person or by phone. Please contact Temenos Publishing: editor@temenospublishing.com
1. Several of the poems deal with marriage and its difficulties. Discuss differences or similarities and how each plays a part of the whole.
2. Discuss the themes of faith and religion in "Record Heat," "Last Rite," "Black Onyx," and "Destin."
3. Discuss the element of fiction versus fantasy in "Destin," "Horseplay," "A History of Roses," and "Recipes."
4. Discuss the musical imagery throughout all the following poems and how they relate to overall meaning of each poem: "Like Bessie Smith...," " Aria," "Be Still, My Heart," "Alanis Morissette..."
5. Discuss physical, mental, or emotional allusions and their significance on each of these poems: "The Boyfriend," "Bruises," "Handicap," "Repairs," "The Day Lulls in Anesthesia," "Last Rite," and "Breast Surgeon."
