Tag: Poets

Book Review, Books, poetry

Summer Reads and Snacks: Book Recommendations with a Twist

Mona Alvarado Frazier

In my June Substack Post, I had fun matching summer reads to food and beverages. Although summer is half over, reading and snacking are not.

I recently finished two more books and recommend you borrow or buy them and take a read. (scroll to bottom)

Mona’s Substack

Two additional books:

If you’re a poetry fan, especially vivid poems that tell a story, then Richard Blanco’s HOMELAND OF MY BODY is a book you’ll love. The 117 poems focus on he and his mother’s homeland, identity, and the body. If I paired this with a beverage it would have to be non-alcoholic (water) because I’d be drunk and crying halfway through the book. Instead I’d have pieces of Ferrero Rocher chocolates to accompany the richness of the poems.

You know when a book is just so good you don’t want it to end? That’s how I felt about THE BERRY PICKERS by Amanda Peters. An indigenous family (Canada, Mi’kmaq) travel to Maine every year to harvest blueberries. Their four-year old daughter, Ruthie, goes missing from the fields, setting off a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors. In alternating chapters we hear from Ruthie and Joe, her brother, who was the last to see her. Pair this with iced tea and chocolate covered blueberries. But drink and eat slowly because you’ll read long into the night.

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poetry

Into a New Year with Poetry

Mona Alvarado Frazier

A steady light rain has blessed drought-stricken southern California for the past three days. This gave me plenty of time to read, write, and enjoy my Christmas chocolates and teas.

I know it’s Saturday, but given it’s a holiday weekend, I decided to do a Sunday share today to honor the year going out and the one coming in. I find the complexity and simplicity of poetry communicate feelings the best.

Burning the Old Year

BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.   
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,   
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.

So much of any year is flammable,   
lists of vegetables, partial poems.   
Orange swirling flame of days,   
so little is a stone.

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,   
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.   
I begin again with the smallest numbers.

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,   
only the things I didn’t do   
crackle after the blazing dies.

And to welcome in a new year: Promise by Jackie Kay.

More rain is in store for this evening, so I’ll celebrate the passing year and talk about the one ahead with my two kids, who’ve decided to stay home instead of attending parties.

A wish for every good thing in your life to come into being. Flip the page to a new chapter and discover what’s ahead.

P.S. If you noticed, I accidentally posted a poem today. I hit a ‘reblog’ button of a poet I follow, Bill Bisgood. He writes a daily haiku. They’re very good. Visit his page.