A Country Rag
Rural Review
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"Gwendoline Y. Fortune has written a chapbook of twenty-four poems: Dancing
as Fast as We can and Inner Scan. You will enjoy reading these lovely,
evocative poems, written by an African American woman whose work you should
know about. She writes from her own experience growing up in the South, with
her own unique voice, which is not stereotypical of what we have come to
assume is "the African American experience." Dr. Fortune also has two novels
finished which are as yet unpublished.
The first fourteen poems, Dancing..., are drawn primarily from childhood
experience. The final ten poems, Inner Scan, are reflective of the child all
"grown up."
I am
convinced that her work deserves an audience. Dr. Fortune is an amazingly
engaging personality. She is witty, learned, articulate, but never predictable."
-- Judith Ernst
Graphic: photo by Charles Dyer
There is a Heaven, and maybe its Counterpart
Jan Maher is a writer whose experiences in her brief life, she's early
thirties, have given her a clear eye, an acute hearing and a compassionate
spirit. I was called back to the stories I enjoyed as a child, but the
telling is not dated in any way. Her first novel, Heaven, Indiana, begins in
1954, the year three infant girls are born in the town. Two of the children
remain in Heaven, growing into the fabric of the town in their own unique
ways. Ellie Denison becomes a waitress. Ellen Sue Tipton is the town's
hairdresser.
These two occupations are the heart and spirit of American small towns for
generations. A pity the "system" is rapidly disappearing.
Meanwhile, the third baby, Nadja, becomes a confidant of a different kind.
She disappears from Heaven the day of her birth and becomes a fortune teller
with a traveling carnival.
Heaven, Indiana is both its obvious, local life and the layers of setting of
wider history where Jan Maher beautifully interweaves a rich telling of
individual and communal secrets.
Seldom do I care to read a novel a second time. This is not the case with
Heaven, Indiana. It is a small book, but not a "fast" read. The reader will
be willing to savor the subtle depths the author presents. I've bought copies
for gifts, because I love this book.
Heaven, Indiana ISBN-0-9703993-0-8 is published by Dog Hollow Press. It is
available at amazon.com for $14.00.
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THINKING FEELING
by Harold Janzen
the work of words
divining mystery
the moon on black sky
half into its slot
deeply touching
to think everything
forward
a leaf on a dark river
playing thru the
flowing galaxy
teasing in and out of time
and space
this leafboat
absorber of states
suspending temperature
and heartbeat
to feel it
to eliminate the density of the
particular
and the concrete
becoming more aware
changing this way
listening inside
setting sail
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"There is a Heaven..." © Gwendoline Y. Fortune, "Thinking Feeling" © Harold Janzen, February 2001.
Graphics © Jeannette Harris, Jonesborough TN, April, 1996, 2000. All rights reserved.
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