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My Will and Testament Is on the Desk
graphic by Tom C. Williams
candlestick by Jason BowmanBuy an autographed copy by clicking on the Paypal button below:
Reviews and comments:
Many of the excellent poems in My Will and Testament Is on the Desk seem to be about the enjoyment of peace, avoiding any overt criticism of war and its justifications. One, however, “Haunted House,” reflects on the ghoulish nature of current military conflicts:
Nearly Halloween, and the high spooks tell
us we should be afraid, our boy king fumes–
We must exorcise the desert demon.
The old cold warriors creak and shriek like ghosts
of desert storms past…from Wavelength, Winter 2004-2005
The second chapbook by Sherry Chandler, featured speaker at the 2004 KSPS conference, begins in doubt and ends with foreboding. “Gravitas” flings a challenge at the pieties of organized religion, and “Sunday Night Before the War” points towards the collateral damage that occurs even in a “just war.” The poems in the middle ruminate intensely about nature, mortality, politics, and aging. Yet this is not a melancholy collection, but rather an inspired call to make the most of our time on earth. Chandler is not about easy solutions to what Garrison Keillor’s Guy Noir calls “life’s persistent questions.” She’s about the beauty and danger of thinking and feeling deeply. In “Tulips,” a description of the natural cycle or growth, decay and rebirth, she suggests that meaning is located in the here and now, had we the patience to sit still and comprehend. Both “The Bull” and “Rabbit’s Nest” present the power and indifference of nature. There is a parallel to be drawn between the rapacity of warmongers and the unthinking cruelty of nature. Does being human count for nothing? the author seems to ask (“Haunted House”. To those who have lost their humanity (“Anthem”), morality is just another assault weapon. The tone is often elegiac and regretful. In “Autumn is Sometimes Sudden,” “Today begins / the season of bittersweet / and bats that swoop at dusk / for tardy butterflies.” Beneath the regret, there is enduring love (“Bonfire”) and defiance. “Crone” thumbs her nose at youth and, by implication, society’s devaluation of older women: “Forget me. I am old. / Free / in my lack of consequence / and vital juices. I laugh / before I close the door.” Sherry Chandler’s will and testament are these short, pithy poems of the mind and heart. Warning: Readers may be moved to write their own testaments.Elaine Fowler Palencia, from Pegasus, Winter Spring 2005
Sherry Chandler
"On the last day of the world I would want to plant a tree.” — W.S. Merwin
My Books
Dance the Black-Eyed Girl
My Will and Testament Is on the Desk
my 'read' shelf:
Artistic Support
Sherry Chandler has received professional development funding and a Professional Assistance Award through the Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, supported by state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Sherry has also received an Artist Enrichment grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women.
Sherry has also received an Artist Enrichment grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women.
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