Reel to Reel
by Alan Shapiro
Shapiro’s collection explores memory and family with a storyteller’s clarity and a poet’s emotional precision. Many poems feel cinematic, as if the speaker is replaying scenes to understand what they meant. The language is accessible, built from clear images and direct observation. Shapiro writes about love, loss, and the ache of time passing with restrained intensity. The collection often circles relationships—parents, partners, children—showing how intimacy contains misunderstanding as well as tenderness. The “reel” motif suggests both film and the act of reeling in: trying to capture what slips away. Shapiro’s craft is steady, relying on narrative momentum and emotional honesty rather than fireworks. The poems build a quiet cumulative power, leaving a lingering sense of recognition. There’s also humor in the ordinary, the small absurdities that make grief human. Reading the collection feels like looking through a family album that keeps shifting as you stare. Gentle, clear-eyed, and affecting.
