This paper once had a book reviewer devoted to poetry, Trish Crapo of Leyden. A poet herself, Trish was better qualified to write about poetry than I.

Unfortunately, at this point I’m the only regular book reviewer the Recorder has. I don’t have a poetic nature. Nevertheless, occasionally a book of poetry comes along that speaks to my prosaic soul. “Stories Told in a Lost Tongue” (Finishing Line Press) is such a book.

This small, eloquent volume was penned by Elaine Harootunian Reardon of Warwick, who will read from her book this coming Wednesday, Dec. 11, at 2 p.m. at the Greenfield Public Library.

Most of the poems in “Stories Told in a Lost Tongue” are a tribute to Reardon’s Armenian grandmother, whose family and memories filled the multigenerational Boston house in which Reardon grew up.

That grandmother and some of her siblings survived the Armenian genocide of the 1910s and a subsequent forced march from Turkey to Syria. They arrived home from school one afternoon to find most of their family murdered and their church burned to the ground. She writes:

They walked from their mountain village,
part of the desert death marches,
thirsty, eating grasses and weeds,
anything they found.
Two sisters fell in the desert,
three trudged on to Aleppo
and onward from there, survivors.

Those survivors “were able to come here because their uncle arranged marriages for them; they needed sponsors in order to leave,” Reardon told me in an email exchange.

“As much as he hurried to do that, it took too long. He arrived with a wagon in town pretty much to be swept up in the death march with them. He was strong and tall, with the bluest eyes I’d ever seen.”

The book abounds with lore the poet absorbed as a child, along with images of the natural world and of cooking. Reardon grew up understanding that the rituals involved in the preparation of food are repositories for culture and memory.

She also grew up steeped in immigrant culture. She explained to me that her own multi-ethnic, multi-lingual background, along with her experiences as a teacher, gave her the empathy and passion for justice displayed in the book.

In the 1990s, she recalled, she taught in the Chelsea Public School System, where two thirds of her students were newly arrived in the country.

“Some families had left places of great hardship in Central America, Haiti, Asia, and come here, landed at Logan airport, found jobs there and homes in Chelsea for a new beginning,” she told me. “These kids sparkled!”

A more immediate spur for putting together these poems, Reardon said, was the current immigrant crisis in this country.

“I thought about why that new wall was being built. I thought about my aunties and uncles that didn’t survive because lining up sponsors for refugees took so long even when our country knew a genocide was happening,” she explained. “And all the people who don’t survive now because, as a world, we still haven’t found a way to not hurt each other.”

She added, “I also wanted to write for my grandchildren, Lina and Ella, who are teenagers in Maine, so they would know some family stories that I wasn’t able to share ... Writing was a positive step, an action I could take.”

Elaine Reardon will read from her book and sign copies for anyone who wishes to purchase it on Wednesday at the Greenfield Public Library. She is offering the book that day at a special price of $15. Her appearance will be sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.