Elmaz Abinader has reviewed Abacus of Loss: A Memoir in Verse by Sholeh Wolpé’ in PRISM International.
Loss rumbles through one’s life—reverberates in every stage of our growth. We lose innocence, lose country, lose time, lose parts of ourselves; lose love, lose territory, lose our minds. Sholeh Wolpé’s memoir, Abacus of Loss, told in verse, addresses losses experienced and witnessed. Wolpé uses an abacus to count these losses, she says, because it is an instrument of remembering. An abacus adds, totals, compiles—calculates the sum of our experiences. The use of this framing instrument keeps the losses in this collection present, rippling—vibrating against hope and solace.
Following the poems as if they are beads on a rosary or a misbaha, we join the speaker in auditing the losses throughout her life and the lives of others. The ten sections (chapters) of the collection are composed of varying numbers of beads (poems), each of which holds a story behind its shiny surface. Beginning with section one, “Color of Loss,” and ending with section ten, “The Tally,” we move through a life thematically—each bead revealing stories the author has lived and witnessed. These are stories of sexual assault, of the search for home—of a niece’s suicide, of losing a homeland, and more. The accumulation of this loss is sometimes whispered—other times howled. Using the abacus to remember, moments move through our fingers; loss is tactile and caressed.
To read the full review, click here.