Throwback: The Weight of Survival by Tina Biello

When my parents died, I learned much about myself, and how much I loved them. There was temporary relief, as each one passed, knowing they—and I—no longer had to live with the suffering and confusions of collapsing bodies and minds. But soon it was clear that the wrench of their deaths had realigned the tectonic plates of my living.

I am grateful to the poets who, after the initial silences of grief, the rituals, and—at last—the cessation of all the busy-ness that death so often entails, write. Elegy, rant, lyric, lament: whatever comes.

This is the way with the heart,
knows the whole time.
it is the body that takes time to catch up. 

-"His Ashes"

Life goes on, differently. It’s good to know we’re not alone as we find our way into the orphaned spaces of those who go on living.

Tina Biello’s fourth book of poetry is aptly titled The Weight of Survival . With these poems, she writes her way into and through a geography of the new lands of orphanhood. She is accompanied by her first language—Italian, dialetto di Cascalenda; and by the traditions of a place always called ‘home’, although she was not born there and never went until she was an adult. “I knew exactly where I came from, what stories were mine and that I was Italian first, Canadian second.”


…I’ve been writing this poem for centuries.
Gli immigrati who ended up wet and cold
by the promise of a new life, a better paycheque…

The sun a distant cousin who left town
to ripen tomatoes on another continent.
A washed out watercolour. 

-"Portrait of the Immigrant"

It’s clear here that a legacy of language and traditions offer strength, joy, comfort in times of grief and loss, laughter. And curses:

May the corno you wear around your neck to protect you from malocchio suddenly fall off…May it be forever lost in the mud and squished down into the earth by your donkey, who refuses to leave until you find it. You will never find it.

-"Curses, Old Country Magic 3"

Also confusion, limitation, difference. For those of who are queer, there is too often not good language, no good time to come out to our families of origin. For Tina Biello, the language she spoke in her familial home has no word for ‘Queer’, no ways to talk about queerness—

How could I love my culture and traditions and hate it at the same time? How would I ever be accepted having kissed a girl. 

-"Queer Dear"

…The women she brought home
every Christmas got them talking.
One year the woman who came home was her wife.

It didn’t go away, was not a phase
came early and never left.
Her lips found the softness, she couldn’t turn back.

-"She Brought Home Women"

Physically, The Weight of Survival is placed in two geographies: the moist and dripping beauties of the small West Coast town where Tina Biello grew up—

…this November breeze as I open the door, the rush of wet air/ The crow’s caw and the drive down the highway. 

-"The Call"

and the sun-drenched soils of cultural and linguistic legacies, silent and spoken, brought to Canada—

His feet bearing the stories his mouth wouldn’t tell/ I wish I had seen more of his feet/ I might have remembered how long the journey…

-"My Father’s Shoes"

I reach for this book frequently. I reach for its carefully chosen words, its imagery and its reflective qualities, its stories about growing up queer and Italian in a small BC town. But mostly I reach for it because it also maps one woman’s journey of the heart.

…Her hands stopped reaching.
Started to repeat gestures,
fiddle with Kleenex all day long,
until the mom I knew left.
Her smell remained
sweat, shampoo, baby powder

I searched for her in every way,
a puppy smelling for her litter after the long drive home.

-"Last Poem about My Mother"

Orphaned or not, queer or not, as we find our way through grief and loss, this book encourages us all to take heart.

Even when the lips stop flapping,
the birds stop singing,
and the frogs stop mating.
The brain won’t stop creating these words…

-"Silence"

Poet, playwright, actor, Tina Biello was born in a small logging town on Vancouver Island to immigrant parents. She has honed her skills of being from “two places” and speaks a few languages because of it. She believes in the power of poetry to reach in and grab hold, and get us through.

She has honed her skills as a poet over the years working with many fine poets, most notably, mentor Patrick Lane. Her work has appeared in literary publications and is included in numerous anthologies, edited by Patrick Lane. She has three books of poetry published and has a long background in theatre as an actor and playwright. She was Poet Laureate of Nanaimo, from 2017–2020.

Publisher: Caitlin Press (February 02, 2024)
Paperback: 8″ x 6″ | 72 pp
ISBN: 9781773861395

Susan Wismer

Susan is grateful to live on Treaty 18 territory at the southern shore of Manidoo-gitchigami (Georgian Bay) in Ontario, Canada with two human partners and a very large dog. Recent publications include a collaborative chapbook,Hand Shadowswith Michele Green and Suzette Sherman (Wintergreen Press, 2024). Hag Dancesis coming out with At Bay Press in Spring 2025.www.susanwismer.com