Recipe for Blackberry Cake by Diane Gilliam Fisher
Wick Poetry Chapbook Series Two, #6 1999, 52 pp ISBN 0-87338-643-4
I had to stop, take a walk, clear my head from computer work. A quick stop at the book store yielded this little treasure of a book.
Recipe for Blackberry Cake is about women, about growing up, seeing and not understanding, about quiet strength and the pain, danger and joy of womanhood. The women are from four generations, each with its own dark places and bright moments.
I read the collection non-stop, and came away feeling that I had taken a journey to a hard place so different from my own upbringing. And yet there were moments of recognition, too--women gathered at a table dropping their voices when a young girl came into the room being that young girl and hearing snippets of conversations I did not understand, but knowing enough to realize that what was being discussed was some secret part of womanhood I had not reached. The school where touching was not allowed, and the rebellion of a young girl against a mother who is struggling to reach across a gnereational divide.
Every day needs a dose of poetry to season the mind and heart. Mine was blackberry-flavored today (and yes, the recipe for the cake is include, in the handwriting of the woman who gave it)/
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Comments are moderated so may not appear immediately, but be assured that I read and enjoy each and every word you write, and will post them as quickly as possible.