Praise for 'The Changing Temperatures of Heartache' by Cassie Senn
Written by Sophia-Maria Nicolopoulos
Reading poetry is cathartic to me. Reading poetry is supposed to be raw, confessional, a love, or hate letter from the poet to the reader. It’s supposed to be messy and thought-provoking. You make a statement; you have an impact on people through your words. You’re brave enough to touch on topics nobody else will do with such ferocity, sensibility, and finesse.
Cassie Senn’s first poetry chapbook, published in 2020, takes all the above into account and delivers poetry that cuts deep. “The Changing Temperatures of Heartache” is a collection of narrative short poems; each one takes over a single page and just because of that formatting, you get the idea that you peek into the narrator’s diary. It’s an excellent example of confessional poetry that ignites discussion around love that breaks you and cures you.
Cleverly dividing her book into sections that describe the state of the heart (both literally and figuratively) when we meet someone, get to know and fall in love with them but suddenly break up with them, Senn’s comments on today relationships, toxic people and the idea that you must own your past to be happy with where it led you. The poet beautifully uses everyday language with gut-wrenching emotion that elevates her poetry-prose to philosophical musings on the meaning of love and loss while the final purpose is to recalibrate and hone your own voice through broken relationships.
Her poetry knows no gender, no boundaries, no identity. It’s emotional and universal, a sensitive experiment on dealing with heartbreak. She writes, “I wonder how many memories I have been a part of, and how many of those have been forgotten,” and then, when the narrator finds a person to fall in love with, she continues “I know the exact moment our souls found each other, and I hope they never let go.”
Wishful thinking, grieving a soulmate you’ve never met and thinking you found it is just five poems away. Hence, the poems are meant to be read in a sitting as they follow gradual progress to reach fulfilment by love but then, a slow decline to gather your pieces after a breakup. This is when you realize that “I must let you go in order to free myself, so that is what I’m doing/ Dropping the shackles and spreading my wings.”
Honest. Spontaneous. Tragic. Inspirational. So many adjectives to describe Cassie’s 200-page poetry by the soul.
I’d like to shed more light on the first section of her chapbook, “Raw,” as it discussed friendship—a type of love that is often bypassed by many when compared to carnal desire and romantic love. Lines like “one of the hardest things is looking at someone you have known all your life and realizing you no longer really know them,” or “and that’s just how life goes, maybe some people are only meant to be an important part of your life for a small amount of time, and others forever” struck a chord with me. Over the years, I’ve lost many friends, some out of distance, others out of their (or my) ego. However, when I read these lines, I was at home, as if someone has felt my own pain and I saw reflected my desire to have these people back in my life, only to counter-argue this with the belief that some people were just never meant to stand by me.
This is the type of poetry Cassie writes, you resonate with it. You feel like you’ve got a friend across the world that will listen to you and write out your pain. Her chapbook serves as a best friend for me, and these lines, I will get back to over and over again when I feel devastated, sad or even happy. In her words, “sometimes all it takes is a talk with the people who water your roots and tend to your leaves in order for you to keep standing,” and I’m of the opinion that not only people but books too can have that effect on us.
Follow this young talented poet on Instagram and @poems.c.h.s and order your copy of “The Changing Temperatures of Heartbreak” here.
SOPHIA-MARIA NICOLOPOULOS is a Content and Publishing Editor from Greece. She's also an aspiring writer and poet. She chooses to see her writing as the kind Ophelia would write had she navigated a world of boundless horror. She’s currently writing and editing a series of folklore horror short stories and her first chapbook. In her free time, she removes cat hair from her clothes.
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