War All The Time John Bennett

War All The Time

John Bennett

Vagabond Press

605 E. 5^th Avenue

Ellensburg, WA  98926

Review by Rene Schwiesow

In a 2011 interview, David Hoenigman, described John Bennett in this way:  “. . .John Bennett has always stood up for what's right and wrong in us, this country, the world. Big heart. Loud voice. Immense mission—to get it all down. For you to see what he sees. Like it or not. Think about it.”  In “Contact is How We Know We’re alive” Bennett punches it home.  And though “War All the Time” (part of a trilogy that includes “The Theory of Creation and “The Birth of Road Rage”) is copyrighted 2005, the words ring as true today:

Rugby, football and war.  Freeway carnage,

beaten wives, drunk drivers.  Elementary –

school shootouts, industry gone berserk in the

Congo – contact is how we know we’re alive.

Peace is for pansies.  Give us drill teams and frat

houses.  Sumo wrestlers, drive-bys and Mike

Tyson.  Bite the ears off of Jesus, cop a plea.  Talk

shows where we give vent to our grievance.

The face in the mirror turns its back.  We

shatter into a lifetime of bad luck.

Yeah.  “The truth,” Bennett says in “Drugs & Wars,” “claws at our backs like a woman in the throes of a climax” and then, “Historians dip their quills into blood” (“Flat-Line Reptilian Brains”).

You get the point, Bennett doesn’t wrap the ugly up in a bow.

Throughout the work he alludes to great writers, texts and individuals and each time the allusions jump from the page and grab you in the intellect, ask you to consider or re-consider the original thoughts.  For example, “Every child is Moses in a basket made of reeds that we bulldoze to make room for urban sprawl.”

He ends a work entitled “Pax Americana” with:

Are we having fun yet?  Good.  Now raise that

flag and snap to.  Mass graves full of children.

Tall buildings in rubble.  Genocide with a smiley

face.  You get the picture.

Myths to live by.

The hero’s journey.

It’s likely that Joseph Campbell did not have the above in mind when he told us to “follow your bliss.” 

Two last thoughts, read the book for the rest:

On a 10:00 am Sunday morning, church bells ring

whole families out into their cars, and just

outside the atmosphere, a huge bat circles the

earth, casting a shadow that covers whole

continents.  We call it stormy weather and

build solariums in the rain.  Giant buildings

come crashing down. . .

And we do not wish to pay attention, grasp the dire situation for ourselves, then for the children:

Our town.  Two kids sitting on a ledge, a boy

and a girl with white holes for eyes, untouched

by anything, kicking their feet in a world where

the clocks have stopped ticking, dreaming the

impossible dream, waiting for good things to

happen.

*****Rene Schwiesow is a poet/writer/reviewer/editor and co-host of the wildly popular South Shore venue, The Art of Words, in Plymouth, MA.

The Theory of Creation by John Bennett

The Theory of Creation

John Bennett

Vagabond Press

605 E. 5^th Avenue

Ellensburg, WA  98926

Review by Rene Schwiesow

“The Theory of Creation” is part of a trilogy.  The other two books are “War All the Time” and “The Birth of Road Rage.”   In the forward, Bennett tells us: “The shards in ‘The Theory of Creation’ were written over a span of time ranging from the mid 1990’s until late in 2004.”  As you read the shards you may find that some appear to be written after 9/11.  In fact, Bennett says they were written years earlier.  His explanation:  “. . .if you’ve got your finger on the pulse, you can hear the beating heart of the future.”

A crowded bus making its way through Manhattan.

People packed into seats and standing up

jammed together.  No one speaks.  Everyone’s

eyes are the same.  There is a faint knowing, an

even fainter surprise.  They’re detached from

illusion until it’s their turn to get off.  There’s

nothing to act on.

This may sound devoid of hope and while Bennett also offers us end lines such as:  “Dry-sperm floats thru the air like cottonwood in a postpartum world,” we are not left hopeless:

Expectation is the readiness to burst into light

in a pitch-black existence.

In “The Business of Luck” all hope seems at an end and yet, from my personal perspective the end three lines of the work remind me of the final scene in “The Grapes of Wrath.”  Rose of Sharon is devoid of hope after the stillborn birth of her child, yet is able to provide sustenance to a starving man on the floor of a boxcar by offering him the milk of her breasts.

You arrived on the scene rolling snake eyes.

You’ve been huddled in boxcars forever.

You’ve gone tits up in the business of luck.

And still, perhaps we are able to offer something of value, to offer hope to someone, somewhere.

In a shard entitled “Plain Speak” Bennett says: “Something much worse has transpired than what Orwell (in “1984”) foresaw.”  Yet, the juxtaposition between despair and hope that he has kept going throughout the book ends with an awe-inspiring hopeful moment:

Overhead a hawk is gliding on the wind against

a clear sky.  I switch off NPR and silence swoops

down over us like the hand of God.  James slides

his earphones down around his neck and leans

over the front seat to look out the windshield

at the hawk, and for an instant, in that silence,

we all three know exactly where it is that we

came from.

Life is a paradox.

Rene Schwiesow is a poet/writer/editor/reviewer and co-host of the wildly popular South Shore venue The Art of Words in Plymouth, MA.

Elizabeth Searle: A Writer Fascinated With the Dark Side of American Culture.

Elizabeth Searle: A Writer Fascinated With the Dark Side of American Culture.

By Doug Holder

  Writer Elizabeth Searle talks with a rapid-fire cadence, has an engaging laugh, and an optimistic sparkle to her eyes. But beneath this lies a writer who is interested in the darker side of American culture-the side obsessed with competition and winning at all costs. According to her website she is :

“ …  the author of two works of theater and four books of fiction: CELEBRITIES IN DISGRACE, a novella and stories; A FOUR-SIDED BED, a novel nominated for an American Library Association Book Award and MY BODY TO YOU, a story collection that won the Iowa Short Fiction Prize and a 2011 novel, GIRL HELD IN HOME. The New York Times Book Review called her novella Celebrities in Disgrace “a miniature masterpiece.” Elizabeth Searle's and Michael Teoli's Rock Opera, TONYA & NANCY THE ROCK OPERA-- as well as her and Abigail Al-Doory Cross’ original opera, TONYA AND NANCY: THE OPERA-- have drawn worldwide media attention. Searle’s short stories have appeared in magazines such as PLOUGHSHARES, REDBOOK, NEW ENGLAND REVIEW AGNI, and KENYON REVIEW and in anthologies such as LOVERS and DON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME. Elizabeth has taught fiction writing at Brown, Emerson College, Bennington MFA, Stonecoast MFA, and the University of Massachusetts (Visiting Writer, 2007-08). She served for over a decade on the Executive Board of PEN/New England and founded the Erotic PEN readings. She teaches at Stonecoast MFA…”

 I talked with Searle on my Somerville Community Access TV show:  Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer.

Doug Holder:  You are a novelist, and playwright. Which do you identify with the most?

Elizabeth Searle: I like to jump. I am a hyper sort of person. For years I would have said fiction right away. But theatre has always been an interest of mine. And I have spent a great deal of time on the Tonya and Nancy opera. It is a show based on the famous knee attack on Nancy Kerrigan that Tonya Harding was suspected of being behind. It is one of the top rated sports events of all time. It is a scandal that I followed breathlessly. To me it has so many themes of America. It is an Only in America story. We created it as a sort of black comedy. We produced it  both as a rock opera and an opera. Both productions seemed to get a lot of media, and we have gotten good reviews too. The Boston Herald gave us a very good notice, and a lot of good media outlets like The Boston Globe covered us.

DH: How did you get the idea for this opera?

ES: My niece was studying at Tufts University. And she wanted to do a short opera as her final project. She asked me for help in coming up with an idea. And I came up with this idea partly because I have written about Tonya and Nancy in my novel Celebrities in Disgrace. So when I thought of an opera—I thought that their story has all the emotions—the whole range. We had greatly talented and professional people involved with this. It was presented at the  Zero Arrow Theatre  in Harvard Square—a theatre associated with the American Repertory Theatre. So now I relate to a lot of theatre writing. Now-this may not make the Met, but, hey, there are a lot of strange operas out there by Philip Glass, John Adams, etc… Recently some people invited me to the Tony Award ceremonies—which was thrilling—so who knows?

DH:  Some writers say teaching detracts from their work—others say it adds to it. Your take?

ES: I think it is a great job to have as a writer. You can’t beat the hours. Yes, it is a lot of work, a lot of reading. But luckily I have taught at programs where the students are talented so I can enjoy the reading of their work. Stonecoast where I have taught for 10 years is great in this way because we get students of all backgrounds, ages, and they are talented. Sure it takes a lot of creative energy to teach, but the hours are such that I can be with my husband and children.

DH: You studied at Brown University—any mentors that you can mention?

ES: John Hawkes—the great American writer. I was in a small class with just five people—so it was memorable experience. I also was influenced by Robert Coover. I did my undergraduate time at Oberlin College. Field Magazine was situated there and it was a great time to be a creative writing major. This was a time when a lot of programs didn’t have a presence like that.

DH: I know back in the day you were in writing groups with writers like Debra Spark, and Jessica Treadway. Both are writers that I have interviewed. How important were for you? Are they still?

ES: My writing groups are still important to me. In my heyday of writing groups I had two great girl groups that included Debra and Jessica. I am involved with a writers’ group that has two members from the program at Brown University when I attended.

DH: You were the Vice-Chair of PEN NEW ENGLAND for a while. What was your role there?

ES: I was on the Executive Board for  10 years. I was also secretary and I helped run the children’s program they had. We had a book fair at the Boston Medical Center—and we gave free books out to the public. We had this event where we sat at a typewriter and would type up things kids would dictate to us—and then make them into books.

DH: You often write about ambitious women that are preoccupied with fame and hunger for attention. Is this in anyway like you?

ES: Oh sure. I am a very practical person. So I realize fame is a very rare thing in the literary world. I am an ambitious writer—I mean I published four books. In my own life I wouldn’t act out in the ways my characters do. However those dark emotions are very American, and I am fascinated with them.

DH: How are these dark undercurrents American?

ES: Our culture is obsessed with winning and competition. I think in a way it runs the American engine, but in another way it is out of control. There is a yin and yang-a good and bad.

The Red Buddha Maia Penfold

The Red Buddha

Maia Penfold

Hocolm Press

ISBN 987-0-9776783-3-4

2010   $15.00

“it leaps out

that afternoon

in saskatchewan in the brilliant sun

pedaling my bicycle over the crunch

of gravel road

the world was all around me

and i was in it i was entirely in it

and then a car approached slowing down

a man and a woman their arms out the windows

waving wildly they yelled the war is over

the war is over

they never stopped

i was stunned

to hear it...”

Penford places herself, like a cypress tree, in the middle

of a field. Each poem spot-lights her humor and the need

to poetize her view. In the poem above, “having reached

three score and ten,” the poet, Maia, takes us where we have

already been and continue to be, on a path, under the sky,

where cars approach and war is over. Where the dead names

remain engraved in stone and the world continues to battle-

“mass murder in yugoslavia in east timor

in africa killing in ireland in palestine and

the children killing children

we've landed on the moon we've got e-mails

you and I can readily fly to hong kong

or new york the world has changed

it's so much smaller than it was

when I was ten...”

This poem is about sadness, about the reality of living a long life.

The book relates in minute details, people and place, “all the men

I know have slivers in their hearts,” and the poet is able to show

us, the political stance people take, by just sitting on a chair on a porch.

“...this tiny planet looks so peaceful

so beautiful from outer space...”

Penfold is a master of her craft, the poems' revisions help

the reader to sit easy with each word, each verse flows

into us like a summer mountain stream.

“...baby nothing much has changed

women’s magazines continue to put

good and gooey dark chocolate cake on the cover

right next to the promise you can lose ten pounds

in time for bathing suit weather with the added

promise to reveal bedroom secrets to please

your man and how to prepare the perfect

lattice top blueberry pie how to inflame

his desire with the right perfume the right

bustier how to tempt him luscious desserts

it's still so much all about him...”

The poems unfold like a novel, a life grown straight-up

out of the rich soil of seeing and relating what the poet

experiences. There are small truths that lead to the big picture.

“i take out our maps and

I show him look I say

crow flying it's twelve miles

straight across but for us it's two

hundred miles do you realize that?

It's a two hundred mile drive through the

desert we have to loop around this

way he smiles at me he knows I can't

say no this time he smiles his smile

of sweet victory

the next day

we are driving by dome-shaped dirt-colored

hogans in the desert

we are driving through the kaibab

plateau of utah and it does look

like canada”

The Red Buddha, re-enters us into the world of poetry by being

there at the exact moment the sentence turns before the reader

realizes there is a pause but there is no pause no capital letters

there is only the promise of a poem and that is enough

for us to continue to read these wonderful poems

irene koronas

reviewer: Ibettson Street Press

poetry editor: Wilderness House Literary Review

Literary /Musical Reception for Elizabeth Warren-- Sept 13, 2012-- Union Square, Somerville

                                       ELIZABETH WARREN FOR SENATE.

 

Elizabeth Searle and Steve Almond

 Invite You to a Literary and Musical Reception

In Support Of

Elizabeth Warren for Massachusetts Senate

Featuring

Ganesh Sitaraman

Policy Director for Elizabeth for MA

With readings by local authors

Andre Dubus III, Anita Shreve, Tom Perrotta,

Mameve Medwed, Anita Diamant,

Lise Haines, Suzanne Strempek Shea

and more

And a musical performance by

Amy Correia

Thursday, September 13, 2012

VIP Pre-Reception with Authors: 7:00PM

General Reception: 7:30PM

Precinct

70 Union Square

Somerville, MA 02143

VIP Pre-Reception: $250 (Give or Raise) › Friend: $100

› Supporter: $50 › General Reception Guest: $25

Please RSVP to Katherine O’Koniewski at Katherine@ElizabethWarren.com  

or by phone at 617-591-2816 or online:

http://events.elizabethwarren.com/event/Writers913

Contributions or gifts to Elizabeth for MA are not tax

Writer Rachael Popek takes the Write Step with 100,000 Poets for Change

Writer  Popek Rachael takes the Write Step with 100,000 Poets for Change

By Doug Holder

 Rachael Popek is the producer for R Jeffreys’ popular radio show the Write Step and is the Executive Coordinator, (working alongside Program Coordinator and Co-Chair R Jeffreys , and Coordinating Liaison and Co-Chair Kathleen Bitetti) for the 100,000 Poets for Change event at the Boston Public Library, Copley Branch, Sept 29 at 1PM to 3PM. According to Popek’s website the event will be”…the largest, single poetry reading in the history of the world. This event will also be archived, recorded and stored at Stanford University in California, and simulcast throughout the globe that day.”

  Popek is also a Master Pastry Chef working for MultiGrains Bakery as an R&D specialist and Quality Director. I talked with Popek on my Somerville Community Access TV show Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer.

Doug Holder: You are intimately involved in the 100,000 Poets for Change event next month at the Boston Public Library in September. You are not a poet…how and why did you get involved?

Rachel Popek: I am not a poet. My good friend R. Jefferys is the poet; I produce his radio show The Write Step on Blogtalk Radio. So when he decided to organize the 100,000 Poets for Change event, I went along with it. And I have become absolutely enamored with it. It is amazing to me that something that is usually considered as benign as poetry can be used in an activist manner. Over the centuries people believed poetry was quiet, benign, artistic and eccentric. I’m learning about literary history. And I have found out to my surprise that poetry has been one of the motivating factors in our history.

DH: Any favorite poets?

RP: When I was a young girl it was Robert Frost. I love Frost, and I loved the stories he told through his poetry. My parents used to read Robert Frost to me. Later poetry had gone by the wayside in my life but now I have come back to it.

DH: Can you tell me about the 100,000 Poets for Change event that you are involved with?

RP: On Sept. 29, 2012 there will be over 600 events and readings across the country that will be broadcast over the internet. The events will be taking place at many times throughout the day. It’s going to be bigger than last year’s event. The reading in Boston will be in the mezzanine of the Boston Public Library from 1PM to 3PM—and will be open to the public.  Featured poets will be R Jeffreys, January O’Neil, Charles Coe, Harris Gardner, Doug Holder, Sam Cornish and Philip Robinson.

DH: You are the producer of the popular Blogtalk radio show the Write Step hosted by R Jeffreys. Tell me about the show and your duties.

RP: The show presents interviews with poets, artists, writers, and musicians. We discuss what it takes to write what they write. We cover their upcoming books, albums, etc… We explore their own personal process through their creative work. We ask questions like:  What does it take for you to create?

DH: How do you find your guests?

RP:  R Jeffreys has an intricate network of friends. Some people come to us. Others we contact when we hear a new book is coming out.

DH: You are a Master Pastry Chef. That is very creative. How did you get involved with this?

RP: It started when someone dared me. Originally I was doing cooking at home. So someone said I should take the course and see if I could promote myself. My father who was a salesman, and traveled the world, told me he had a friend in France who would take me on as an apprentice. My two kids went with me. It was a great experience. I was in Paris every weekend. I was told to stay in France because America was not a good place for a pastry chef, especially for a woman.  I didn’t know how right this was. When I came back I couldn’t get a job because I didn’t have experience—it was a man-driven business.

DH: Can you make parallels between being a chef, and writing?

RP: Both start out with a summation. Writing consists of these questions: what is the story  going to be about?—how am I am I going to break the story down?—what are the main characters, etc.?…  You do the same thing when you build a cake—when you are going to build a reputation. You go from scratch. The story and the cake have a foundation layer—so you are writing a cake in a sense.

DH:  You are working on a memoir Living Beyond Cancer: Not Just Surviving. Tell us about this.

RP: In Feb. 2012 I was diagnosed with cancer. I am a middle-aged, single mom-who without work would not have health insurance, and without insurance there would be no treatment. I wrote this book which is essentially about compartmentalization. I took out the unnecessary from my life so not only could I survive physically and financially, but I could live. I didn’t want to be overwhelmed with debt. I worked throughout my treatment. I never missed a scheduled day of work. I was able to physically and mentally compartmentalize.

….. For the 100,000 Poets For Change event go to: http://100tpfcma.weebly.com/performing-poets.html

Leo Racicot Remembers Julia Child

JULIA CHILD

                              A FRIEND INDEED!!

                                        by Leo Racicot



    I had become good friends with the well-loved American
writer, M.F.K. Fisher (Mary Frances) when, on one of my
many, cherished visits to her bungalow home in Glen Ellen,
her friend, Julia Child, phoned her for a chat.  After she hung
up, I saw a bulb light up above Mary Frances' pretty head.
She said, "Julia lives in Cambridge. You live in Lowell. I'd
love for the two of you to meet. You'll get along swimmingly!"

    I jumped at the chance to meet the famous French Chef.
MF made all the arrangements and in March of that year,
after Julia gave a talk at the Boston Public Library followed
by a book-signing at nearby Newbury Street's Harvard Bookstore
Cafe (now gone), I stepped meekly forward, calling out my name
to "Mrs Child".  "Oh!", she burbled to the long line of admirers
waiting for her autograph, "Leee-ohh's here!!  Leee-ohh  Rass-
ee-coe is a friend of M.F.K. Fishah!!"  Everyone clapped as I
ascended into Seventh Heaven.

    Every Saturday afternoon, when I was a boy, lying belly-
down on my living room couch, watching Julia Child, "The
French Chef", chop, dice, bake, parboil and joke her way
into everyone's heart, including mine, never in my wildest
dreams did I imagine I would one day be standing in front
of her (or rather, I should say, cowering under her for at
an imposing 6' 2" tall, she towered over my quivering smallness
like Juno halloo-ing down from Mount Olympus. To say I was a
tad nervous is to say that flames are hot).

    But she put me at ease immediately in that goose-y, Warner
Bros. cartoon of a voice, "Call me Jooo-leeah!!".  I had wondered
to myself whether some of her t.v. personality might be a put-on
for entertainment's sake. I was wrong; Julia was as
engaging, eccentric, generous, smart and daffy as she was
when she cast her magic spell every week over PBS viewers
here in Boston and all over the world.

    With a wave of her hand, Julia shooed her entourage away
proclaiming, "Leo and I shall be dining alone".  We were ushered
to a corner table by the head chef himself, a dark, jolly Buddha
from Tunisia called Moncef. We ate and drank lustily, and
spoke about many subjects (at least Julia did; I was happy
just listening to her hold forth on a constellation of topics
the scope and breadth of which was infinite, for Julia, I
would come to learn in the years ahead, did not care to talk
shop. Local politics, world affairs, space exploration, the
literary and arts scene, libraries, her days as a spy for the
O.S.S., the Cambridge community and neighborhood she
lived in -- these were the subjects she was more apt to
pile onto her conversational plate. She was one of the
most intelligent people I have ever met, as well as one of
the funniest; her comedic skills and timing could, at times,
rival Lucille Ball's; And she was possessed
of an Olympic energy. "I never tire!" was her motto, and I
saw her outlast, outdo, outshine people 20, 30, 40 years
her junior, including me.

    Our evening was a total delight.

    So it was with some regret when it ended that I hailed
her a cab and watched it whisk her away into the night.
My time with her was so once-in-a-lifetime and surreal,
it was as if it had taken place in a dream.  "Well, I probably
won't be doing that again anytime soon, if ever", I thought
as I made my happy/sad way home...

                            *    *    *    *

    Years later, I took a job as caregiver to the son of
former members of The Roosevelt Administration, Hilda
and Francis Shea. My responsibilities were solely to instill
living and language skills in their son, Richard. I was told
to report to an address on Francis Avenue. And though
I knew the street was only a stone's throw away from
Harvard Yard (having trained at Harvard Divinity School
years before), I had no real idea where Francis Avenue
was in relation to its neighboring streets.

    Imagine my surprise, then, when, about a month after
taking up my duties there, the house manager, Bob Stone,
took me over to the kitchen window, pointed to a grey house
in the near distance and said, "I bet you don't know who lives
there".  I said I did not and Bob exclaimed, "Julia Child!!"
I was so beside myself, I made the mistake of telling Bob I
had actually had dinner with Julia and the story of our evening
together, and about M.F.K. Fisher. I say "mistake" because the
very next day, Ms. Shea, my employer, came down to the kitchen
asking if I knew how to make a sauce soubise. I said I did not
and told her the on-going joke among my friends that "Leo could
burn boiling water if you give him the chance".  "Oh, come, come
now", tittered Ms. Shea, "I know you're friends with M.F.K. Fisher
and Julia Child. You're being much too modest."  No amount of
protest could convince Ms. Shea that knowing M.F.K. Fisher
and having dinner with Julia Child once did not mean I could
cook.  She led me over to a wall spilling over with cookbooks
galore and declared, "You are my son's companion and now
you will be my chef as well."  I swallowed hard. Was I ever in
the stew. Because Hilda Drosnicop Shea never took "no"
for an answer. From anyone. Ever. She handed me a cook's
apron, showed me where all the pots and pans were kept
and said, "Let's see what you can whip up for this evening's
meal."

                              *    *    *    *

    Only God knows what came out of the oven those first,
few months because I certainly didn't. Somehow, my concoc-
tions didn't look a thing like the pictures in the cookbooks.
Let's just say it was not uncommon for staff to call out for
pizza delivery as soon as they saw what I had plunked down
for them on the table.

    One particular fright that was supposed to be Hungarian
goulash but looked like a volcano had erupted in the Dutch
oven and tasted even worse, became the final straw. It was
time to call in the cavalry (a.k.a. Julia Child, or as we all in
the house came to intone whenever something inexplicable
sat bubbling on top of the frightened stove, "What Would
Julia Do??")

      It is little known about Julia, I think, that she was one
of the most accommodating celebrities on the planet. Her
home phone number was listed in the book; not only did
she not mind people calling her for culinary rescue; she
also welcomed them, for she loved all things food-related
and saw herself as a teacher and felt it her duty to school
her students or at least listen when they needed kitchen
assistance. Perhaps because fame had come to her later
in life, she had not let it go to her head. Down-to-earth,
practical, and having herself made many mistakes on her
way to "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", she more
than understood (the reader will please forgive my use of
the obvious idiom here) that "You have to break a lot of eggs
before you can make an omelette".

    And so, Julia and I became better friends this second time
around. We went to the movies together, took fine walks
around The Writers' Block, shopped at Farmer's Markets
and local grocerias, went for rides to see the New England
foliage.

    Mostly, we spent happy hours in her kitchen, her patience
and good nature explaining why my souffle had taken a nose
dive, why eating my Apple Brown Betty was like sticking your
tongue into a giant sugar bowl or why the catfish casserole
"should never have been put into a recipe book in the first
place; some recipes simply don't work!!"  She helped me
become, over time, if not her or M.F.K. Fisher, then certainly
a reasonable facsimile thereof.  I can whip up a mean jam-
balaya, can tease the most succulent juices from the driest
meats, and my Beef Bourgignon has been known to draw
near-orgasmic sounds from those lucky enough to find it
on their plates. Ahem.

    For this is the basis of what Julia Child did. Her gift
to America. That she was able, through talent, but also
through hard work and perserverance, belief in herself
and a soupcon of "funny" thrown in for taste, to turn a
country of unculinary dolts like me into cooks who won't
flinch when handed a pot, a pan or a brand new recipe
to grapple with.  Julia Child changed the way we think
about food, about eating, about ourselves in our kitchens.
She liberated the American palate, mired for generations
in a diet of meat, potatoes and gravy. She introduced new
foods to the American table, opening our minds to ex-
perimentation and international cuisines. We eat better
because she explored better foods for us to eat. Julia
was a true pioneer and like all pioneers, found the courage
to step out onto an unknown road and bid us follow...

    I miss her. I imagine we all do. With a spirit as
brave and nonesuch as hers, how can we not?



**********   Leo Racicot's work has been featured in "Co-Evolution Quarterly","Utne Reader", "Spiritual Life", "Gay Sunshine Journal", "First Hand","The Poet", "Ibbetson Street Press", "Poetry", "Shakespeare's Monkey"and "Yankee". Two of his award-winning essay-memoirs appear in "Best of..."anthologies, and he is the recipient of the Antonio Machado PoetryForum Award (1992). His holiday story, "The Little Man" is beingpublished by Snug Harbor and will be available in audio and animatedform on fablevision.comHe has been a schoolteacher/librarian/cook/counselor/poet/actor/clown

Review of BURDEN OF SOLACE, Poems by Teneice Durrant Delgado

Review of BURDEN OF SOLACE, Poems by Teneice Durrant Delgado, chapbook, Cervena Barva Press, PO Box 440357, W. Somerville, MA 02144, www.cervenabarvapress.com, 2012, $7.

Review by Barbara Bialick, author of TIME LEAVES

Like Cervena Barva Press is often known for, Teneice Durrant Delgado’s new chapbook, BURDEN OF SOLACE, is a disturbing eye-opener at yet another human miscarriage of justice—the slavery trade in young Irish women, on the same boat with the black slave trade, all used to harvest sugar and breed mulatto slaves in Barbados, in the Caribbean.  She quotes a statement paper from London in 1742 which called it, “…a great benefit to the West India sugar planters, who desired men and boys for their bondsmen and women and Irish girls…to solace them…”

In the compressed space of 10 poems, Delgado gives us an ugly picture of “forced emigration to hell or Barbados…” (“Mary Margaret”)  In the poem about “Anne Glover”, the girl is told “…If you stop bleeding, she said, in Irish, forbidden, don’t ever let yourself love that child./Don’t/you ever think that child yours…”  In the turmoil, “her work-bent fingers worry over imaginary rosaries for three/long days…”

Teniece Durant Delgado, of Dayton, Ohio has published in literary magazines and has published two other chapbooks:   FLAME ABOVE FLAME and THE GOLDILOCKS COMPLEX.  She is pursuing a degree in Community Counseling at the University of Dayton. She is also co-founder and poetry editor for BLOOD LOTUS: AN ONLINE LITERARY JOURNAL and publisher and managing editor for Winged City Press Chapbooks and is on the editorial board for New Sins Press. She has an MFA from Spalding University’s Low Residency program.