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Memento Mori
Expressionistic oil paintings by Janet Snell accompany lyric narrative poems by Cheryl Snell in the sisters' new collection. Between them, they have authored ten books of art, poetry and fiction, most recently PRISONER'S DILEMMA, winner of the 2008 Lopside Press Chapbook Competition, judged by Don Zirilli. OUT OF PRINT
- GenresPoetry
48 pages, Paperback
First published June 21, 2009
15 people want to read
About the author
Cheryl Snell
42 books34 followersReviews of my books: http://cherylsnell.blogspot.com
When I married into a Hindu Brahmin family, I began to write seriously as a way to penetrate the protocol of another culture. My novels, Shiva's Arms and Rescuing Ranu explore South Indian life, particularly the stage referred to as samsara.The term haunted me for awhile— samsara--the sibilance of a word that can connote drowning. I had been reading Indian writers—Lahiri, Desai, Divakaruni-- and was drawn to the stories of immigrant families thrashing in their domestic seas. The plight of characters who straddle two continents, the lives they make here, and the families they leave behind, raised the question: when one belongs to two cultures, which part of a divided self goes, and what stays? It's a recurring question in my work.
Besides my novels, I have written eight other books. Most recently, my poetry was chosen by Dorianne Laux for inclusion in the Best of the Net Anthology, and one of my collections of poetry, Prisoner's Dilemma, won the Lopside Press Chapbook Competition. When I'm not writing, I like to cook in the Indian idiom, and I play a mean classical piano.
When I married into a Hindu Brahmin family, I began to write seriously as a way to penetrate the protocol of another culture. My novels, Shiva's Arms and Rescuing Ranu explore South Indian life, particularly the stage referred to as samsara.The term haunted me for awhile— samsara--the sibilance of a word that can connote drowning. I had been reading Indian writers—Lahiri, Desai, Divakaruni-- and was drawn to the stories of immigrant families thrashing in their domestic seas. The plight of characters who straddle two continents, the lives they make here, and the families they leave behind, raised the question: when one belongs to two cultures, which part of a divided self goes, and what stays? It's a recurring question in my work.
Besides my novels, I have written eight other books. Most recently, my poetry was chosen by Dorianne Laux for inclusion in the Best of the Net Anthology, and one of my collections of poetry, Prisoner's Dilemma, won the Lopside Press Chapbook Competition. When I'm not writing, I like to cook in the Indian idiom, and I play a mean classical piano.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 20, 2009
A Cache of Fireflies and other Joys
'Memento mori' is another term for still life which is another way of describing observed carefully arranged items worth remembering, Memento mori is a particularly apt title for this collection of poems and paintings by the sisters Snell. Cheryl Snell, the writer poet, combines her sparkling little observations of life and ordinary things such as childhood reveries and mental notes of things/incidents/people she has observed and transformed into poem form: Janet Snell, the visual poet, continues to create aqueous paintings of expressionistic nature that pull the eye into worlds of fantasy and illusion. Part of the joy of the collaboration of the two artists is that they resist the temptation to 'illustrate' each other. That would be the expected result in a collaboration - one artist has an idea and the other elaborates on it.
Not so with MEMENTO MORI. Opposite Janet's wonderful little painting 'Gorkyesque' Cheryl places 'Poem with Bugs":
First they appear as paths
of dying stars, sparks arcing across
the old oaks. Imagine the presence
of bats whickering, the field full
of rushing shadows. The ghost of your father
is closer now, coming toward you
without grief or regrets. no one is to blame.
In the backyard of your childhood home,
upraised branches bloom with wings.
Someone else's little sister cups fireflies
in the indigo moments before bed, tossing
them into the empty spaces you must turn from
before the dusk backs into what it was -
failing light and fading voices,
a vast goodbye, the shimmering dark.
Across from Janet's painting 'Narcissism' is Cheryl's wonderful 'She paints herself into a corner.' And as the book flows - a feast for the eye and a recalled pleasure of reading memorable poetry. An Excellent book, this!
Grady Harp
'Memento mori' is another term for still life which is another way of describing observed carefully arranged items worth remembering, Memento mori is a particularly apt title for this collection of poems and paintings by the sisters Snell. Cheryl Snell, the writer poet, combines her sparkling little observations of life and ordinary things such as childhood reveries and mental notes of things/incidents/people she has observed and transformed into poem form: Janet Snell, the visual poet, continues to create aqueous paintings of expressionistic nature that pull the eye into worlds of fantasy and illusion. Part of the joy of the collaboration of the two artists is that they resist the temptation to 'illustrate' each other. That would be the expected result in a collaboration - one artist has an idea and the other elaborates on it.
Not so with MEMENTO MORI. Opposite Janet's wonderful little painting 'Gorkyesque' Cheryl places 'Poem with Bugs":
First they appear as paths
of dying stars, sparks arcing across
the old oaks. Imagine the presence
of bats whickering, the field full
of rushing shadows. The ghost of your father
is closer now, coming toward you
without grief or regrets. no one is to blame.
In the backyard of your childhood home,
upraised branches bloom with wings.
Someone else's little sister cups fireflies
in the indigo moments before bed, tossing
them into the empty spaces you must turn from
before the dusk backs into what it was -
failing light and fading voices,
a vast goodbye, the shimmering dark.
Across from Janet's painting 'Narcissism' is Cheryl's wonderful 'She paints herself into a corner.' And as the book flows - a feast for the eye and a recalled pleasure of reading memorable poetry. An Excellent book, this!
Grady Harp
Displaying 1 of 1 review