Roxborough Native Releases 'Tragically Beautiful' Poetry Collection

Diane Sahms-Guarnieri grew up on the streets of Roxborough.

She made her mark in gymnastics at Roxborough High School and Turners Gymnastics, and is a member of the Roxborough Sports Hall of Fame.

Then she turned to literary acrobatics. She is now making her mark as a poet.

Anaphora Literary Press has released, Lights Battered Edge, a collection of poems.

Poet Nathalie Anderson said of this collection, “These compelling poems leave us disquieted, as much by beauty as by sorrow.”

The last section of the collection titled, “1925”, deals with tragedy that befalls a family centered in Roxborough and Manayunk.

Frank Wilson of Books Inq. said, ”Think of the spirit of place as the frame of memory shaping language, of the perpetual soliloquy of being who you are in counterpoint with echoing phrases others have uttered at or to you, and you will have some idea of the chant and enchantment of the poemsgathered in Light’s Battered Edge.”

Sahms-Guarnieri has been honored with a grant in poetry from the AVE foundation, was the winner of the 2015 Working Peoples Poetry Contest, has served as Poet in Residence of Ryerss Museum and Library and aspoetry editor of the Fox Chase Review. Her third collection, Night Sweat, is slated for release in January 2016.

Light’s Battered Edge is available for purchase here.