New Poems, New Year

Today I was happy to finally receive my copy of Sweet Lemons 2: International Writings with a Sicilian Accent, eds. Venera Fazio and Delia De Santis. I have two poems that appear in it --"Sundays at Nonna's" and "Ray". The book features writers from Canada, the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, as well as those from Sicily whose work has been translated into English.

I read my poems to the Bambina, who is just starting to understand, it seems, the concept of Nonna having a Mommy or Mommy having a Nonna. She has spent a good part of the last three weeks recuperating from a bug, while snuggled under the blanket that used to belong to my grandparents, the ones who lived on August Avenue. I managed to pore over a few pages from the book today, despite the Bambino's determination to get his hands on it. Jim Zucchero's piece, "Remembering Home", is striking because so many of the details about the house he grew up in -- the old tin garage door that made a long moan each time it was raised, the black wrought iron railings leading up to the veranda, the flower boxes filled with fuchsia pink petunias -- remind me of my own Nonna's house and her neighbourhood.

I look forward to dipping more into this anthology, especially the excerpt from Michelle Alfano's novel-in-progress You Shall Be Like Us -- based upon the life of the bandit Salvatore Giuliano, sometimes known as the Sicilian Robin Hood.

It looks like you can get a copy of the book from amazon.com, but not the Canadian site.