Everything Begins in the Belly

Poetry and prose about desire, love, longing, heartbreak, happiness, and the emotional landscape of women. In her second poetry collection, Everything Begins in the Belly, Debra Parmley considers where everything begins and offers reflections on dancers and dancer's lives, friendship, sisterhood, the challenges of adult romance, desire, choosing a mate, marriage, love, what lasts and what doesn't.

The poems are collected into six sections. "Beginnings" poems address how things begin.

"The Dancers, Backstage" contains poems that give a glimpse into the lives of various dancers as she weaves their varied experiences through the poems. "Performing" addresses the many different dancers on the stage under the bright lights of performance and pleasing audiences.

"Tent Life Upon Desert Sands" gathers poems about deadly deserts, being hopeful, belly dancers, desire, and soft pillows. "Dance Partners" poems about what it is to be a partner dancing with another and what it is to be a partner in relationships. "After the Sun Sets - Before the Final Curtain" - ending poems that close the collection celebrate quieter times and peaceful endings. 

The complicated bonds between people

These are poems about life: finding breath and joy as a woman while living a full life.

Tenderly, joyously, sometimes in sadness, always in sisterhood, Debra Parmley writes from the heart and celebrates life, believing that "Every day we are alive is a beautiful day."