AUGUST 23, 2018 // 19
BOOKMONGER
Poets artfully tackle aging, mortality
Can you recall the smells
of places where you grew
up? I remember the fra-
grance of roasted peanuts
whenever my family drove
past the old Sunny Jim
plant in Seattle and — less
fondly — I remember
Tacoma’s once-famous
“Aroma.” Nowadays,
many Northwest neigh-
borhoods have a distinc-
tive olfactory signature,
thanks to a resident
brewery or roastery or
bakery.
This prompts me to
wonder about Tilla-
mook, which has its
longstanding dairy,
timber and fishing in-
dustries, of course, but
I wonder if more recently
there might not be a whiff
of something else in the
air — is there a particular
fragrance linked to poetry?
MoonPath Press, which
relocated to Tillamook just
a couple of years ago, has
been pursuing such an active
publishing schedule that
it’s charming to think there
might be a subtle poetic
redolence in Tillamook’s
evening breeze.
This week’s column is
devoted to two new volumes
from MoonPath Press that
feature the work of two
older female poets. Each
is assessing — with as-
tonishment, rue, panic and
occasional ecstasy — what
it has taken to arrive at this
point in her life, and what it
means to be an elder.
Tacoma poet Connie K.
Walle’s collection, “What’s
Left,” runs a gamut of emo-
tions. Her “For the Love of
Sunday” piece, for example,
describes a nap in which
she’s covered by “a blanket
of poetry books.”
“Would my children
guess / by the smile on my
lips, / I died from an orgasm
of words?” she wonders.
But on the opposing
page, the poem “Myth”
takes a less rosy view,
describing a withering
Cinderella, “dry and brittle,
/ pressed between the pages
/ of time.”
Walle contends with bit-
tersweet memories and with
faltering memory, with the
specter of loneliness and the
prospect of death. She writes
about regret and forgiveness
and what it takes to face
loss. This is potent work.
Likewise, the
poetry of Sequim
poet and nurse
practitioner Risa
Denenberg.
As collected
in her new book,
“slight faith,”
Denenberg’s poems
offer fragments —
sometimes they’re
more like shards —
of life’s twists and
turns.
Her lines can be as
reductive as “a birth,
a chipped / tooth, an
affair, a custody war,
a death by fire, / a vial
of ash.”
But as a mother, a
lesbian and a health
care worker, as well as
a poet, Denenberg also has
keenly honed insights into
“tapped-out psyches” and
“our own sacred essence.”
She plumbs passion and
contradiction. She consid-
ers unflinchingly the cruel
fallout of intolerance.
And on occasion, she
displays a magnificence
of craft that outshines the
poem it resides in. Take her
piece “Rain,” which may
be a soliloquy on longing
and loneliness, but it is that
poem’s succinct third verse
that asserts a timeless, stand-
alone perfection: “I dream
in haiku / as it taps at my
window / in tart syllables.”
Sometimes exultant,
sometimes bruising, both
“slight faith” and “What’s
Left” offer words of candor
and courage.
The Bookmonger is Bar-
bara Lloyd McMichael, who
writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, au-
thors and publishers of the
Pacific Northwest. Contact
her at bkmonger@nwlink.
com.
“What’s Left”
Connie K. Walle
MoonPath Press
100 pp
$15
COURTESY MOONPATH PRESS
Author Connie K. Walle.
COURTESY MOONPATH PRESS
“slight faith”
Risa Denenberg
MoonPath Press
118 pp
$15
Author Risa Denenberg.
C oast G allery and n umismatiCs
“a different kind of gallery”
Coast Gallery and Numismatics is the northwest coast newest gallery. Opened June 1, 2018, Coast Gallery
and Numismatics exclusively features original oil paintings and wood fired ceramics by Jeff Whyman
MFA University California Berkeley 1981. Jeff Whyman lived in Cannon Beach for over 10 years and
taught at Clatsop Community College in Astoria, Oregon. From around the world we also offer exotic
shells and choice world coins. Regards coins we offer complimentary appraisals on Saturdays.
C oast G allery and n umismatiCs
3350 N Hwy 101 Suite D, Gearhart, Oregon • Wed. thru Sat. 9 am to 4 pm
www.coastgallerynumismatics.com