INSIDE OLLI -
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CLOUDBREAK
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Reading Ferlinghetti While Getting a Mani-Pedi
I sit reading Ferlinghetti’s San Francisco poetry getting a mani-pedi, pre-pandemic. My feet are in lemon-scented hot water, fingers held by a San Franciscan woman. I can’t understand the Vietnamese of her giggle-gossip with co-workers. Customers rest in chair thrones reimagining our lives and nails in vermillion or purple. |
There are lines in this poem that should go on a banner flag for San Francisco:
Real People, real life. The way it was, then
hipster corner shops making pour over coffee, cold-brew, almond, soy or non-fat In another fifty years, will some new wave of immigrants push out the old, cause the poets writing today to reminisce nostalgically. |
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My favorite poem in this collection is “The Long Marriage.” The words and lines are compact but they are powerful. There is a lyrical quality to Quaker-plain words conveying love and comfort.
The corners of his mouth tug
in a secret way when he is setting up a joke Gazing at me in desire or pride his brown eyes and jaw soften Similar childhoods, though states away the scent and rustle of autumn leaves scuffed on our way to school |
There are 59 poems in this collection—some previously in Vistas & Byways and other publications. I wish that Heather had speed-published this book because it made perfect pandemic reading. I would love to tell you about the 57 other poems. Cloudbreak is like an origami paper jewel box that I eagerly unfold, page after page, dog-earing ones with poems that cut through the stresses of a pandemic and took me to places that made me feel good again.
And I know someone who would have truly loved this book—he used to enjoy reading her pieces and once said to me “this is a New England writer—her words pack a punch.” But he did not get the opportunity to enjoy it while he was alive.
Note: Cloudbreak is available on Amazon.com in either paperback or Kindle e-book form.
And I know someone who would have truly loved this book—he used to enjoy reading her pieces and once said to me “this is a New England writer—her words pack a punch.” But he did not get the opportunity to enjoy it while he was alive.
Note: Cloudbreak is available on Amazon.com in either paperback or Kindle e-book form.
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Elsa Fernandez grew up in Asia. She has lived in San Francisco since 1970 and never gets tired of this lovely city. She has travelled the world and still gets excited flying back home and to finally land at SFO. Her family is scattered around the world—India, Australia, Dubai, England, Ireland and Argentina. She is a political junkie and majored in Journalism and Political Science. She loves music and plays the piano quite well (one of her dreams was to own a piano bar in upcountry Maui . . . she would probably call it the Maui Moon!). Writing poetry is an emotional outlet for her.
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