FLUTES AND TOMATOES A MEMOIR WITH POEMS by Wade Stevenson

“Flutes and Tomatoes” by Wade Stevenson is a compelling story of survival, love and resilience in the face of loss. Filled with a crackling energy these poems describe self-discovery, worldly discovery, and the discovery of the mutability of time that shapes the world through the ever-distancing, ever expanding waves of disorder and randomness that are left behind after the death of a loved one.

The howling emptiness of hunger runs through these poems like a river washing through a chasm. Stevenson invites us to look deeply into hunger, to take the empty spaces back so that we may find a gift of sorts in the beauty formed from music made upon the places where distress has made the foundations of grief into walls. Walls that are enclosing as equally as they are too feeble to hold out the noise of rain undisguised as tears. “How long would this state last? That was a question that had no answer and therefore it was never asked.”

The writing is meticulous; each and every word is a celebration. Its sentiments are genuine using the tomato as a humble object to demonstrate the other as a personal story that wanders into an inspired song of longing. Drawing ideas and metaphors around the tomato that circulate as a way to free one’s mind of the ego and find the self within its red skin, within the redness of blood.

Moving from the surreal to the very real tensions of love, sex and desire these poems are written with a sense of unfolding mystery, with voice that is sure in its tone. Both strong and vibrant these words play a crimson sound that seeks both release and containment. By the end of the book, there is peace that develops between the flute and the tomatoes, we see them all flowering – the tomato becomes a rose.

Wade Stevenson was born in New York City in 1945. He is the author of several books of poetry, a memoir One Time in Paris and a novel, The Electric Affinities.

Book Information:

· Paperback: 102 pages

· Binding: Perfect-Bound

· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books] 

· ISBN: 978-1-60964-221-1 | $16

Flutes and Tomatoes- A Memo… by Geoffrey Gatza