Pouf  

This entire chapbook of poems is devoted to Aunt Mary, who lives in a nursing home, complains about the lack of service in this "hotel," the lousy food in this "restaurant," and asks her niece to complain to the "stage manager" about the boring entertainment. She reminisces about Frank Sinatra, homemade Italian food, shopping trips, high balls, and dancing. Her monologues, sprinkled with Italian (there's a glossary at the end) are at times touching or wistful, but mostly hilarious. Aunt Mary is usually nodding off or telling you it's time to leave at the end of each visit, but you're eager to turn the page and come back again. Whether you have an Italian family, your own version of Aunt Mary, or simply enjoy good comedy, you'll love this collection. It would be a great gift for nonreaders of poetry, too. Pouf is funnier than any sitcom.

Alarie Tennille, author of Waking on the Moon

Power, Doubled

If youre a follower of Maryfrances Wagners poetry, youve been gratified to see two books by Wagner appear in the space of a year: Dioramas (Mammoth Press) and Pouf (Finishing Line Press). If youre new to her work, these two publications will introduce you to her amazing range from tragedy to humor and the nuances in between. In Dioramas, Wagner, like Chaucer, celebrates the human parade; all manner of folk family, students, friends turn onstage as she notes the hum and tick of their lives. And Wagner likes her readers. She wants to be understood. Her voice is clear, yet mysterious, like a watermark. Wagner is the master of unerring imagery and detail. In one of the most compelling poems of the collection, Pansy, Wagner tells of an ill-fated marriage that results in a woman and her husband moving out of an apartment, leaving behind only a dirty tea towel...and a brown sweater/hanging lopsided in the closet. There are introspective poems, too, where we glimpse Wagner remembering herself as a young child small as a molecule, snow falling. Different in tone and intent from Dioramas, the chapbook Pouf offers one of the most unforgettable characters in contemporary poetry: Wagners insouciant Italian-American Aunt Mary, who finds herself in a nursing home and has plenty to say about it. Wagner wisely lets Aunt Mary speak in a series of monologs, by turn laughable and tragic. With her keen ear for idiom and tone, Wagner captures an enigmatic, flawed, and utterly likeable woman who suffers the onset and insult of dementia. Aunt Mary doesnt suffer fools lightly; sometimes she bemoans the fact that she can't get a little custard in the place, declaring that the nurse who should be bringing it makes my ass tired. Sometimes she recalls a time when her husband took her dancing: I wore sequined dresses./ Ah, don't ever get old. Don't end up here.  Readers, thanks to Wagners skill with narrative, can see and hear Aunt Mary as clearly as if she were standing beside them. Indeed, Wagner is one of the best narrative poets writing today. She deserves wider attention. Reading Diorama and Pouf, readers are sure to feel the passion and power evident in all her work. In these poems you'll feel sadness, joy, foreboding, and the occasional "clip" of salt.

Jo McDougall, author of The Undiscovered Room

An Italian-American original from the Sinatra generation, Aunt Mary, from Maryfrances Wagner's collection, Pouf, is not about to leave the planet without offering her tart, bilingual mix of opinions regarding everything from biscotti to hair do's to Elizabeth Taylor's cocktail jewelry. Wagner's homage to her dearly loved aunt achieves what is difficult in poetry - capturing the full-throated voice of a subject and making it memorable. Wagner's Aunt Mary, even in old age, is a wild spirit who lived to the max in the the warm circle of family, neighborhood and community. Her words won't be forgotten.·

                                              Catherine Anderson, The Work of Hands (Perugia Press)

In Pouf Maryfrances Wagner, with equal parts affection and acuity, creates an almost archetypal representative of a dying generation, in the person and voice of her own Aunt Mary.  These poems speak directly to the reader in frank, often humorous and ultimately poignant vignettes of Mary's life as an Italian-American woman of a certain style: a woman defined by family, good food, attention to clothing and hairstyle and all of life's other simple pleasures, called back to life within the starkly contrasting setting of a nursing home.  Wagner has produced both a genuine tribute to a dear relative and an important poetic record of a personality artfully captured by her seamless conversion of Aunt Mary's own words into accessible and resonant poetry.

                                              Joe Benevento, Poetry Editor,

                                              Green Hills Literary Lantern

Maryfrances Wagner's poems about her aunt living out her last days in a nursing home are as evocative as they are realistic. They catch a voice in all its humor and pain enacting a desire to connect to past and present. Pouf will make you see, hear, and feel the world of family as few poems can do. It makes a distinctive, restless sound.  

                                              Andrés Rodríguez, Night Song, Maureen Egan Award

Pouf, A New Chapbook of Poems by Maryfrances Wagner Is Now Available

     Pouf, Maryfrances Wagner's unique collection of 20 poems, introduces the singular  character of Mary Frances Passiglia Balestrere, Ms. Wagner's Aunt.  This slim collection from Finishing Line Press covers the last few years of her Aunt's life in a nursing home under the watchful eye of her son, Jimmy, a most dutiful son indeed.  Aunt Mary wasn't afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease, but she suffered from a strange form of dementia called Sundowner's Syndrome.  This resulted in her being normally aware and cognizant of her surroundings during most of the day, but sometimes in the afternoon or evening losing her grip on reality and confusing family members long gone with her neice and son.  During those hours she found herself living in one of the strangest hotels in the Kansas City, Missouri area.  She often confused her family with the people and stories she saw on TV.  Aunt Mary's comments on and assessments of her life in this odd world fill these poems with humor and surprising wisdom as this brave lady spends her final years confined to a bed and a wheel chair.