This week's prompt at Poets & Storytellers United : Write a poem that include the title of a season-themed book you're reading.
It is good to see that other people are reading Booktober Blitz books as fast as they can, too.
Embedded in the verse below is the name of my favorite holiday romance, so far. The review is forthcoming--Sunday, the day after tomorrow, in fact. Along with the obligatory lovers' quarrels the author has managed to work in some fresh, respectful, and dead-on-target social commentary about my part of the world. I like a book with a good sense of the author's topophilia. Usually the places other writers love are places where I've never gone and will probably never go. This time the author's invented a fictional town that has to be imagined as just a half-hour's drive away from mine. Names are blurred but the place the author loves is, unmistakably, the place I love. How could I resist Emily Dana Botrous' Second Chance at Sugarplums!
And have I gone soft in the head?
I hear some readers' angry taunt.
With celiacs being murdered, dead,
Is escape reading all I want?
What of our war on glyphosate?
What dispatch from the battlefield?
Those buck moths people love or hate,
What knowledge of them's been revealed?
The moths are fluttering right along,
Be assured, sponsors of the blog.
When glyphosate news comes along
It's sure to be in a link log.
Meanwhile, are joys and comforts dead?
Life's cookies nibbled down to crumbs?
For couples who still quarrel and wed
A second chance at sugarplums
In real life, as in frivolous tales,
Awaots those who will feed their need
With reason's work, not passion's wails,
As in the better books we read;
Some news is bad, some news is good.
Relief from constant, needless pain
Is not being reached fast as it should.
Time's wrapped in winter wind and rain.
Yet still young people seek a mate;
Old people hope a grandchild comes;
Whatever else may lie in wait,
There's still some chance of sugarplums.
I enjoyed this. From the first stanza to the last (my favorites) and I like sugarplums!
ReplyDeleteThen you'll like Emily Dana Botrous' novel, because it contains an actual recipe for oldfashioned sugarplums!
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ReplyDeleteOh fiddle-de-dee, Google. I removed the duplicate.
DeleteHere's to escapism through books. The way things are in the world we could have chosen some illicit way to fend off reality for a little while.
ReplyDeleteYes, novels are a relatively healthy way to escape...especially at bedtime!
DeleteAbout eight blocks from our house. I had to look up the word "celiacs" and from what I learned is that celiacs disease can be caused by eating too much gluten. I have the symptoms of the disease. Just yesterday my gastroenterologist decided that I should try taking four fiber pills a day, which I've been doing for years, but now add a dose of Miralax every other day as needed. He didn't mention Gluten but did say at my age living and controlling the symptoms would be my best out, no surgery because of the age.
ReplyDeleteOf course, as always, I enjoyed reading the whole of your writing. Keep on having me to read a new word definition now and then.
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Oh, Jim...and so many more...
DeleteCeliac disease used to be very rare, limited to descendants of a few families in Ireland. All genetic celiacs may have a common ancestor. The celiac gene is involved in activating a few more lethal genes. When those genes are not present, celiac disease USED to be non-fatal and, if the patient worked with it and avoided wheat products, the celiac trait flips into a super-power--we have to be strong and tough to live with it!
All this is changing. Other factors may be contributing to the change, but the primary agent of change has to be the herbicide glyphosate. While some celiacs deny any connection between their gluten and glyphosate reactions, all the celiacs I know have the same reactions to glyphosate alone that we have to gluten alone, ONLY MORESO. Many people now have pseudo-celiac reactions, to wheat and to other foods containing glyphosate residues and also to exposure to glyphosate vapors. People who do and do not have the celiac gene are starting to die of more severe complications that celiac disease used never to have.
I am actively working on a book, in the same way that Robert Kennedy is working on a presidential campaign, for people like you. For now, wheat is something to avoid because it's still almost certain to be contaminated with glyphosate--in the US. In some European countries you could still eat wheat, In the US, wheat's not the only thing you need to avoid. Most cheap plant products, unfortunately, are now as poisonous as wheat. The "organic" label does not mean something is safe to eat. The "Non GMO Project" label is safer but some food products that carry it have been deliberately contaminated with other things, like broken glass. It's very hard for us to choose foods that minimize the damage being done to us, but every day we can avoid having a pseudo-celiac reaction to glyphosate helps us heal and fend off cancer.
Love the metaphor of the sugar plums used so well here Priscilla and some lovely writing too.
ReplyDeleteI especially enjoyed:
"Some news is bad, some news is good.
Relief from constant, needless pain
Is not being reached fast as it should.
Time's wrapped in winter wind and rain."
Excellent and confident writing -mmuch enjoyed...
Thank you; I'm glad you enjoyed it.
DeleteEscape reading (or escape netflix) is quite necessary to recharge oneself - to get back and cope with the horrors of this world.
ReplyDeleteWhen it's time to stop "battant Tenebre" and go to sleep, anything that floats the dream boat is good. Books have fewer calories than milk.
DeleteI love your poem, particularly the upbeat ending. And I am all for escapist feel-good fiction (see my comment in answer to Magaly's enquiry about our December reading). This one sounds right up my alley; will look for it on Kindle.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see it in hardcover! If you don't find it (and the other books I'm reviewing this winter) on Kindle, try Book Funnel. All of these authors are more or less self-publishing. Most of them have a few other titles available in addition to those shown here.
DeleteI know many with celiac disease and many who are gluten intolerant. A real struggle. We consume organic bread, now I am wondering if it's the best I can purchase. Your post today is amazing!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting and commenting, Helen. Yes, it's easy to avoid gluten once we give up all ideas of eating as a social ritual, but it's hard to avoid glyphosate. So-called "organic" food may or may not be glyphosate-free; if it's a second-rate store's brand of "organic," chances are it contains glyphosate.
DeleteWow I loved your poem of hope , beautiful..even I'm a romantic at heart
ReplyDeleteDespite my snarkiness, I am too...
DeleteThe last line is deliciously perfect. I enjoyed the entire post--poem and intro--but that last line will stay with me. I love it when poetry is true, relatable, and hope-filled.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Magaly!
ReplyDeleteDear Priscilla, thanks so much for the comment ~~ your Mother was right! Very few, other than the very wealthy can afford Bend. We lucked out in 2005.
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