Aphorism | Paroxysm by Remi Recchia

Aphorism | Paroxysm is an investigation of the interplay between the Abrahamic religious tradition and a contemporary understanding of transmasculinity. The hybridity of the manuscript, which is composed of psalm erasures, original poems, and a curated selection of tweets with authentic timestamps, reflects the connection(s) between God and transness. Central to the work is the concept of embodied pleasure.

Remi Recchia, PhD, is a trans poet, essayist, and editor from Kalamazoo, Michigan. A five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Remi's work has appeared in World Literature Today, Best New Poets 2021, and Prairie Schooner, among others. His works include Quicksand/Stargazing (Cooper Dillon Books, 2021); Sober (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2022); Little Lenny Gets His Horns (Querencia Press, 2023); From Gold, Ghosts: Alchemy Erasures (Gasher Press, 2023); and Transmasculine Poetics: Filling the Gap in Literature & the Silences Around Us (Sundress Publications). Remi has been a Tin House Scholar and Thomas Lux Scholar. He holds an MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University.

“Aphorism | Paroxysm is at turns hilarious and sacred. In the collection, Remi Recchia uses biblical erasure, social media, and more traditional poetry to sing and extol the transmasculine experience and call out religious bigotry. Recchia writes ‘Trans people are perfect and exactly as God made them (trans),’ and this collection is a praise song to such.” —Erin Elizabeth Smith, author of DOWN

“Through tweet screenshots and blacked-out Bible verses, Remi Recchia’s Aphorism | Paroxysm invites readers to undertake a journey of self-love at the intersection of transness and faith. This self-empowerment, however, does not come without a price: Each ‘aphorism’ of transmasculine joy is coupled with the ‘paroxysms’ that necessarily accompany reconciliation, self-creation, and the palpable pain—through deadnaming, misunderstanding, inaccurate history, and a longed-for (denied) childhood, among other realities—of walking and breathing as a trans individual. Recchia’s empyrean verse and curation/reconfiguration of found texts assert that trans beauty, while hard-fought, is anything but incompatible with God’s grace; God created all of us. As a non-binary individual myself, I found in reading Aphorism | Paroxysm something I seldom do in my everyday life—hope.” —Dani Putney, author of Mix-Mix and Salamat sa Intersectionality, finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Poetry