Margaret Menges

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In doing so, she creates a panoramic portrait of the landscape. Sometimes she's a bystander, sometimes a more major character. Often she bumps elbows with strangers and the poems bloom from the detritus of these brief encounters. Sometimes, it's the briefest of pictures: a woman on the street pushes a leaf with the rubber tip of her cane. Elmira searches for connections and often plays with time. Some of the poems make reference to specific anecdotes from the city's collective history or the writer's personal history, but the collection is neither memoir nor documentary.</div> <bR> <div> In some cases, the poems tend toward a magical realism. Some poems are based upon actual events: a bus driver, on the last day of his job, buys coins to give away to each child on the bus. Others events did not happen, but perhaps could have. Often the fact or the personal vignette becomes the diving board that springs Elmira into other waters. And, strange as it may sound, at least two poems germinated from the fertile dream world, where images paint themselves, seemingly, without our permission.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> From the book:</div> <bR> <div> <B>Elmira Waits Each Year</B></div> <bR> <div> for ten perfect days in April</div> <div>    when the three pink crab apple trees</div> <div>       on Water Street decide on cue to bloom</div> <bR> <div> together, then agree to let go</div> <div>    together on the count of three,</div> <div>       carpet the sidewalk, transform</div> <bR> <div> it into a runway filled with petals</div> <div>    that cling to the wheels</div> <div>       of strollers, to the treads of sneakers,</div> <bR> <div> catch in the wet paws of dogs pulling</div> <div>    children to a hundred back hallways,</div> <div>       kitchens, love mapping strangers</div> <bR> <div> with pink blossoms, this mysterious</div> <div>    community of the Pink Blossomed Ones</div> <div>       with all their daily rituals, plates</div> <bR> <div> with plates, cups with cups, blankets folded</div> <div>    just so at the end of each and every bed.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Elmira Keeps Track of Numbers</B></div> <bR> <div> As best she can, all the facts: the gross national product,</div> <div>    real estate transactions, annual rainfall, the length</div> <div>       of the wobbly social ladder. What's left: all things</div> <bR> <div> shimmering, inexact. She's added up her firsts and studied  </div> <div>    their sums. She collects them like gold stars on nearly perfect</div> <div>       papers, saves them in a trunk in the attic, hauls them out</div> <bR> <div> on dusty floorboards, rainy days. That day, for example,</div> <div>    when she sat in Dr. Elizabeth Whittaker's first class</div> <div>       as first female full professor at that first college</div> <bR> <div> offering graduate degrees to women. The experiment</div> <div>    Elizabeth conducted that day concerned the properties</div> <div>       and effects of acids, ways to neutralize them. In front</div> <bR> <div> of Cowles Hall, a male professor welcomes his colleague, but wants</div> <div>    to be assured that she is not receiving the same</div> <div>       salary as he is. She is.  </div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="11e065e0.jpg" border=0 width="262" height="350" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Photographs: Courtesy of the Chemung County</div> <div> Historical Society, Elmira, NY</div> <bR> <div> Margaret K. Menges grew up in Elmira, NY.  </div> <div> She received her B.A. and Masters Degree from</div> <div> Elmira College and taught English in the Elmira</div> <div> Heights School District. With artist Kathy Huddle,  </div> <div> Margaret collaborated on the book Children of the Sky.  </div> <div> Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals such</div> <div> as Poet Lore, Rattle and The English Journal. She has</div> <div> also contributed to the anthologies Earth-Shattering Poems,</div> <div> Roots and Flowers and Dancing with Joy.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="11f99a50.png" border=0 width="153" height="165" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <B>Lament's Grocery </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Garamond" >is a 64 page hand-stitched paper book with spine $16.00</FONT></div> <bR> <div> TO ORDER  ON-LINE   </div> <div> (Release - February 6)                           <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Garamond" >                  </FONT></div> <div>       </div> <div> From the US         <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/sc-but-01.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Lament's Grocery"> <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="10--03"> <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="16.00"> <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> </form>  </div> <bR> <div> From Canada    <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/sc-but-01.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Lament's Grocery"> <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="10--03"> <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="16.00"> <input type="hidden" name="shipping" value="2.75"> <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> </form>  </div> <bR> <div> From Other Countries            <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/sc-but-01.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Lament's Grocery"> <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="10--03"> <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="16.00"> <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> <input type="hidden" name="shipping" value="5.00"> </form>  </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ordering By Mail"><U>To order through mail click here</U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>