Speaking to the Dead
by Al Tacconelli
"Are the dead there if we do not speak to them?" --Sharon Olds, taken from her "Birthday Poem for My Grandmother"
Are the dead there if we do not
speak to them? Everywhere
invisible they hover.
Shadow voices whisper...
wait, don't move, go forward
--is how they speak. When to our beloved dead
we speak, they listen,
rejoice at our remembering.
Their smiles avert disasters.
We need to speak to them,
always they speak to us.
click here to read more poems and see paintings on amusejanetmason.com by Al Tacconelli
Al Tacconelli
Poet and artist, Al Tacconelli has read at Robin’s Bookstore, The Free Library Of Philadelphia, and Hofstra University. Al’s poems have appeared in The Endicott Review, and Mad Poets Review. His chapbooks are; Two Countries, One Heart, and The Laurenzi Poems. Included in the permanent collection of contemporary art at Passaic County Community College are several of Al’s paintings and prints.
Reflection
by Maria Fama
As I open my laptop
I catch my reflection on the blank screen
my grandmother, Domenica, stares back at me
with that wary, tilt of the chin
here I am at six in the morning
on the sofa in a nightshirt
with the same expression
Grandmom wore when she posed for
formal photographs or debated politics
There for a moment
I see that burning intensity
around the eyes
that Grandmom had when she labored
over her sewing machine
turning out dresses and pants
I wonder if this is how I look
bending over a keyboard
to turn out poems
In the screen's reflection
hints of my grandmother's wedding portrait
my high school graduation picture
that expression of wonder
at the telling of tender or tragic tales
those looks borne in our genes
all through the fields, factories
kitchens, classrooms
bedrooms and parlors
all flash in the quick minute
before I press the computer's power button
and brightness overtakes me.
Click here to read Sappho, from Looking for Cover, poems by Maria Fama
Click
here to read another poem by Maria Fama -- Drawing
Stars
Click
here to read/hear Janet Mason's review of Fama's Looking for Cover
BIOSKETCH OF MARIA FAMÀ
Maria Famà is the author of six books of poetry. Her work appears in numerous publications and has been anthologized. In 1998, she was named a finalist in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards. Famà has read her poetry in many cities across the United States, read one of her stories on National Public Radio, co-founded a video production company, and recorded her poetry for CD compilations of music and poetry. Maria Famà did her undergraduate and graduate work in History at Temple University. Famà’s poems were awarded the 2002 and 2005 Aniello Lauri Award in Creative Writing. She appears in the film documentaries “Prisoners Among Us” and “Pipes of Peace” reading her poems. In 2006 she was awarded the Amy Tritsch Needle Award for Poetry. Her upcoming book of poems, Mystics in the Family, will be published by Bordighera Press. Maria Famà teaches English at DeVry University and lives in Philadelphia.
