The Daughter of Highland Hall: A Novel by Carrie Turansky My rating: 3 of 5 stars It is April of 1912 and Katherine Ramsey has come to London to do the “season.” Under the sponsorship of her aunt, Lady Louisa Gatewood—her own parents have both died—it is her goal to come out as a debutante,… Continue reading The Daughter of Highland Hall (review)
October Fashion Morning wears crisp cotton and smoky tulle woven through with gold light. North Shore mountains are sensibly dressed in darkest denim, their tops hidden, cozy under unrolling bolts of blue- and grey-tinged fleece. The park has thrown on a shawl of embroidered leaves in tangerine, scarlet, yellow wine, olive. Even dwarf cedar has… Continue reading October Fashion
This is Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada and I should probably be posting an overtly thankful poem. Let this be its substitute, for it sings the praises of some of the things for which I am most thankful: the ability to walk, beautiful places to walk, someone to walk with, fall colours, fall mists, the Creator… Continue reading The sun dreams palely down
Thief of Glory: A Novel by Sigmund Brouwer My rating: 5 of 5 stars “There (in a village on the island of Java, Dutch East Indies), a marble game beneath the branches was an event as seemingly inconsequential as a banyan seed taking root in the bark of an unsuspecting tree, but the tendrils of… Continue reading Thief of Glory (review)
Two weeks after surgery (March 17, 2014) Why does it hurt so far from the incision? My muscles are a straitjacket of pain to natural walking unseen, inner prison. Will I ever walk easily again? Deep in my hip a tremolo of weakness that frightens me when stepping with a cane. At physio a modicum… Continue reading Two weeks after surgery (Limp – 3)
Membrane "The membrane between the normal and unthinkable is exceedingly thin" - mother of an autistic child fall, fracture pops rainbow bubble thin unseen fragile skin between normal everyday and life ever changed disappeared flight 370 Oso Slide membrane slashed now mud, rubble, tears, searching no going back © 2014 by Violet Nesdoly (all rights… Continue reading Membrane (Limp – 2)
Storm Siren by Mary Weber My rating: 2 of 5 stars “ ‘Fourteen circles for fourteen owners.’ I shade my eyes to block the sun’s reflection off the distant mountains currently doused in snow and smoke and flesh-eating birds” – Kindle Location 107. In this first snippet of the story already we see its bloody… Continue reading Storm Siren (review)
In Diane Lockward's June newsletter,* the Craft Tip article "Poetic Sequences: Practice Makes Potential" by Oliver de la Paz tells of his visit to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Spain. On that visit he came across one room where the paintings, drawings, and studies on the walls, as well as the sketchbooks filling a table… Continue reading Poem sequences (introducing LIMP)
Paul Simon reunion Duncan, my dear, take me to the Mardi Gras to the outrageous hurricane eye for the mother and child reunion. Just because I was not born under African skies not born in Puerto Rico doesn’t mean I don’t belong in that Kodachrome Graceland of peace like a river. Wartime prayers sung to… Continue reading Paul Simon reunion
HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton by Jonathan Allen My rating: 4 of 5 stars “‘I sort of describe it as “stages of Hillary,”’ one member of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s inner circle said. ‘You know, you first dread the prospect of working with her, then you sort of begrudgingly begin to… Continue reading HRC (review)
Violet Nesdoly 