Afternoons of Suspended Love
by Stefania Lucchetti
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Pub Date 14 Mar 2025 | Archive Date 30 Sep 2026
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Description
IF YOU HAVE BEEN MARRIED FOR A LONG TIME, THIS POETRY COLLECTION IS FOR YOU
(Cover Art: Adam and Eve, Gustav Klimt, 1917 - Belvedere Museum, Vienna)
With a warm and sensual voice, Stefania Lucchetti explores the often-unspoken realm of love and passion in long term relationships and marriage: a dance of skin and soul, passion and reality, nourished by time, shared commitment, and gestures imbued with significance.
Capturing the hidden moments, reflections, and emotions which shape intimacy over time, the poems included in Afternoons of Suspended Love delve into love’s endurance through life’s inevitable challenges, transforming them into growth, rediscovery and ultimately renewal and passion. An invitation to explore intimacy through the lens of experience and wisdom, celebrating the refined sensuality and enduring power of love through time, circumstances and age.
Through bilingual English-Italian verses, readers are invited into a poetic world which is lyrical yet drawing from the wisdom of lived experience, narrating a tale of love as a rich and immersive experience, sailing through the tides of both the joy and complexity of human relationships.
With lyrical grace and profound insight, Afternoons of Suspended Love is more than a collection of poems, it is a celebration of life, intimacy, and the enduring magic of love. Each verse invites reflection, connection, and emotional resonance, encouraging readers to embrace passion, resilience, and the beauty of enduring relationships.
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Stefania Lucchetti is an Italian award-winning poet and essayist. Bilingual in Italian and English, she writes poetry of lyrical refinement and contemporary relevance. Lucchetti is the author of Coffee Stains on My Books, Poetry is Cyberpunk, Penelope's Web and Love Poems.
A Note From the Publisher
Slightly erotic and suitable for 18+ readers
Advance Praise
Editorial review on Reedsy Discovery:
Loved it!
"Love, passion, acceptance - all of these themes permeate through this English/Italian collection with intensity, humour and honesty"
R. Deeming
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"A Passionate Dialogue for Couples" - Reviewer: Reader (Italian Edition Review)
"An intense and passionate book which offers new perspectives on love within long-term relationships. Each poem speaks like a story, giving voice to emotions we often cannot express. Whether read alone or shared with a partner, this collection helps us find each other again."
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"A Poetic Map of Long-Term Love" - Reader (Italian Edition Review)
"An intense and exciting collection that reframes romantic poetry for couples in lasting relationships. These poems give voice to unspoken feelings, offering emotional clarity and reconnection—whether read alone or together."
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"Love As a Journey Through Seasons" - illibroeservito (Italian Edition Review)
"This bilingual collection traverses marriage through its shifting seasons. Stefania's verses celebrate love as a living, evolving force that breaks time's wear and tear. Moving, tender, and timeless—every poem feels like a rediscovery."
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"Delicate Verses on Enduring Love" - amantedeiromance (Italian Edition Review)
"Stefania Lucchetti offers a poetic journey into the everyday magic of long-lasting love. Her delicate verses remind us to slow down and cherish the silent moments, the daily choice of choosing one another."
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"Passion, Strength, and Tenderness" - Avv. Giuseppe Di Gaeta (Italian Edition Review)
"An iconic portrayal of passion within the walls of home. These poems pulse with the beauty and dynamism of a couple's life—relentless, intimate, and profoundly alive."
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"A Flame That Never Fades" - Laura (Italian Edition Review)
"This stunning bilingual collection captures love in its maturity—intimate, visceral, and regenerative. Each poem is a tender storm of emotion, inviting readers to rediscover the joy, fragility, and power of choosing one another every day."
"Stefania Lucchetti's poetry books make me think: "We all feel that way, how odd nobody says it and on top of that her books impart music and beauty to the world' - Martin Latham, author of The Bookseller's Tale (Penguin)
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9791221083262 |
| PRICE | $15.50 (USD) |
| PAGES | 110 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Average rating from 1 member
Featured Reviews
Ettore L, Reviewer
Afternoons of Suspended Love is a remarkable and truly original collection that turns its attention to a subject too often overlooked in poetry: love and erotic passion within the continuity of marriage.
What makes this work particularly compelling is its ability to approach long-term love without idealization or clichè. Instead, it presents marriage as a living, evolving space where passion, memory, habit, and rediscovery coexist. The poems explore intimacy not as something that fades, but as something that changes form: deepening, resisting, and renewing itself over time.
Stylistically, the collection draws on a lyrical and classical sensibility, yet remains grounded in lived experience. The language is refined without becoming distant, allowing the emotional core of the work to remain accessible and immediate. This balance gives the poems a rare clarity: they are elevated in form, yet anchored in recognizably human moments.
The metaphors are carefully shaped and purposeful, often emerging from the textures of everyday life. Rather than grand abstractions, the collection finds its strength in precise, meaningful details - gestures, shared spaces, fragments of conversation - through which love is both expressed and examined.
There is also a subtle but important reorientation of perspective. By narrating love within marriage, the collection challenges a long-standing poetic tendency to focus on beginnings, longing, or loss. Here, love is neither fleeting nor nostalgic, but sustained — an ongoing negotiation between presence and change.
Afternoons of Suspended Love is an elegant and necessary contribution to contemporary poetry. It expands the boundaries of how love can be written, offering a nuanced and deeply felt exploration of passion within enduring commitment, and it is genuinely a pleasure to read.
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