Matrimony

I start once more to write a review of an extraordinary book of poetry about a love affair and marriage that spanned 6 decades. What makes me stop and start again? It is a profoundly personal account of meeting, falling in love, marrying, raising a family, growing old together, and then adjusting to life after Ollie’s death at 95 years of age. Unfiltered emotions, yet not overly sentimental, expressed by the author in these poems pull at my heartstrings, welling my eyes with tears which give me pause. The last part of the collection is devoted to her life after Ollie, but not without him. Although fully engaged now as mother, grandmother, great grandmother, friend, poet, lover of nature and the arts, Ollie’s presence is palpable. They held each other for 66 years and have never let go.I have also read The Daily Absurd, published in 2014, which is another wonderful collection of poems about the beauty, the nonsense, and the trivia of everyday life written with her unique style of colorful imagery and precision. A sheer delight! Although I tend to read more prose than poetry, I shall not miss anything Laurel Feigenbaum writes. Her work enriches my life!Nancy Griffiths

Matrimony traces the arc of a marriage that lasted a lifetime with dignity, grace, and aching beauty. These poems are chock-full of sentiment—that is, powerful human emotion—but are never sentimental, due to Feigenbaum’s careful craft and restraint. It’s hard to find poems of quality on this subject, and even harder to find ones written with this kind of mastery and control. How greedy can you get? The speaker asks in one poem; the answer is: very greedy, and in a very good way when it comes to capital-L Life and Love. Standouts include a tender poem recognizing the generations (“Ode to a Great-Granddaughter”), the poignant “Second Childhood,” and a moving homage to a lifelong mate, “Letter to my Husband.”

As Laurel Feigenbaum suggests, "Step into the exoskeleton Age Suit," which will allow you to feel what it's like to be decades older. Then slip into the high tech Smart Suit and feel decades younger. These experiences play out in the poem "...Someone Else's Shoes," but they also serve as an apt metaphor for experiencing "Matrimony," as readers shuttle through time, backwards and forwards, and this richly textured account of what it means to love someone over a very long stretch, and to survive their loss while continuing, with grief and joy, into one's advanced years. One poem in particular, "Ask Me," is an abecedarian tour de force, recounting a life-changing "morning in August." Enjoy.

Laurel’s ode to matrimony is a poetic jaunt through marriage, children, family, grandchildren, birth and death, sung throughout in a beautiful poetic Opera. Not to be missed.Judith Ets-Hokin