The Loneliest Age

Hell is up for debate - at least to me, an atheist, and in The Loneliest Age, the speaker of Richard LeDue's poem "Because The Doctor Recommended Walking" in which he states rather eloquently, "Neither of us believes in heaven, so how is this hell so real?" The hell in question is loneliness, which as LeDue frames, in another terse brutal verse in this resonant collection, "is rarely imagined." It is a tangible malignancy even in seasoned relationships whose appearance can seem benign as "unsaid words still colorful leaves" that grow, in the poem "Growth," into "a barren tree." LeDue mixes natural imagery, trees, and snow with modern details like the accent of a waitress, which reminds the speaker of "the first time he paid for sex, a week ago."

Life is growing into a loneliness as certain as birthdays and funerals and facing it with courage and candour. LeDue not only accomplishes this in his poetry collection, The Loneliest Age, but he also accomplishes something more. His speaker connects with that pang in all of this. Reading this book, you will feel less alone.

-Kristin Garth, author of Flutter and Candy Cigarette Womanchild Noir

In The Loneliest Age, Richard LeDue captures that time in our life that is always winter: the trees barren, the relentless cold, with the snow covering our many regrets. This collection is a series of echoes. Each poem provides a new layer of how expectations of companionship are so fragile and how the ones we love can become unable to love us in return. This writing is deft and subtle, with a keen understanding of what it means to be human.