What Sweetness From Salt

It’s 2 fer Friday and here is my first offering.

What Sweetness From Salt, is a collection of the poetry by Francine Conley.  It is a soulful compilation of 24 poems, written over the last 10 years. Each was chosen because it contributed to the others, building a powerful experience.

Francine has been an acquaintance for many years. I met her through friends and have received occasional updates on her complex life. I knew that she was an artist, a poet and performer of one woman shows. But I never took advantage of the times that she was in town, sharing her talents.

Last night, contrary to my rigid behavior, I spontaneously went to hear her read selections from her new book, What Sweetness From Salt. The title compelled me to go. I don’t read poetry. I’ve only been to a reading twice in in my life. It is my loss that I have not allowed myself the pleasure of the spoken word and the richness of experience and wisdom that a well-crafted poem can provide.

Over the years, since Becky’s death, my world has contracted, withered to just a few blocks. Spontaneity was banished. It disrupted my well-ordered cocoon. However, over the last few months I’ve been reinventing myself, slowly dismantling the shell that has tightly embraced me, protecting but also stifling. Last night, I tore down more of my self-imposed armor.

Francine’s poetry was my reward for breaking out. It is a treasure of language, emotion, and wisdom. It’s not a light and frothy read. Rather, it is an exploration of how the sweetness of life can be discovered in the salt of pain.

I bought her book after the reading. Again, another break with the old me who never read poetry. This morning, sitting at my worktable, outside the darkness was a solid thing, I started to write this blog, pen and paper.

Later, when I got to the café, for my morning coffee and conversation, I found it empty, tranquil. I read her first poem, Eve’s Dilemma, methodically, inspecting for structure and metaphor. But the words refused to let me intellectualize and turn it into a safe abstraction. I read it a second time and then read it aloud. I’m captured.

When I began to enter my draft into the computer, I quickly threw it aside. I had to start again. Trusting in my talents and newfound spontaneity. This page is the product.

You must have guessed that I highly recommend, What Sweetness From Salt.

More about Francine Conley

She is an accomplished artist who has, among many things, earned a Fulbright Grant to study theater in Paris, published in numerous prestigious American poetry journals, traveled for years performing her work and performed with a French speaking theater troop and co founded the Rabble Writers Collective.

For more about Francine Conley and her work, go to;  
francineconley.com.

Now for the commercialism

Artists must eat too.

If you live in the Twin Cities you can find her book at Moon Palace Books, 3032 Minnehaha Avenue, Minneapolis, 55406, Moonpalacebooks.com.

It is also available from her publisher, finishinglinepress.com.

And from the ever looming Amazon.com.

Following in a few hours will be post number 2; Intent.