Sunday, June 28, 2009

The Wind and The Willow


Review of
Rose Marie Raccioppi’s
The Wind and the Willow

“Are these assumptions of reality/The shackles that need to be broken[?]”queries Rose Marie Raccioppi in “Possibility,” from The Wind and the Willow, her first collection of verse. The line is emblematic of her core pursuit to pierce beyond the illusory veils of the material world while paradoxically being dependent upon reality for drawing imagery to provide intimations of the “Beyond.”

A non-denominational devotional poet with fervent pantheistic longings, Raccioppi’s metaphors and unpretentious affirmations appeal directly to the heart. In this volume she creates a metaphysical poetry and is content to take her simple Shelleyan imagery wherever she finds it within nature’s bounty.

The Wind and the Willow consists mostly of brief meditations and what Raccioppi calls “mindscapes” which constantly seek calming epiphanies of self-recognition in the fleeting moments, even in the midst of turbulent and painful experience. At her best, in works such as “This Night Knows No Sleep,” “This a Winter’s Night,” “Away You Fly,” “Descent No More,” “But Can I Share,” “The Wind and the Willow,” “Swaddling Divine,” and “Now and Ever Blessed,” Raccioppi attains perceptual clarity and an incantatory music that might remind readers, by turns, of Henry Vaughan’s devotional lyrics, Walt Whitman’s celebrations of the unbridled Self, the near-improvisatory freshness of D.H. Lawrence’s “Pansies,” and William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence.” This is poetry that is designed to reach a broad audience.

John Ballard

Available at Barnes and Noble and online booksellers nationally and internationally.
Pub. Date: June 2008
ISBN-13: 9781604744545

Special Announcement:
THE WIND AND THE WILLOW
Now available in hardcover and softcover directly from Publish America.
Click on title, place title in search bar of Publish America Entry Page.
Thank you for your order.
ENJOY!

The Wind
all pervading
free
one with all direction
The Willow
rooted ever in search
branch and leaf so humbly bend
holding to the wind
the light
and the unseen Presence
Wind and Willow, so I am
thought, mind and spirit
all pervading
free
one with all direction
holding to the unseen Presence.

Rose Marie Raccioppi


And now it is late afternoon this very day

Perceived joy in this moment real
A sense of oneness I shall not conceal
The lilting exuberance, the embracing calm
Life in all its blossoming, its abundance, its wondrous charm
This moment barren of loss, fear, regret or sorrow
Holds the promise of BEING, this moment, this hour, this day, a tomorrow
This spirit, this soul, this life bequeathed to me
Ever was, ever is and ever shall BE.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

8 comments:

Karen said...

Congratulations on the book, the great review, and the poem! I love both images - wind and willow, force and object, movement and strength.

Kat Mortensen said...

What a great review! I envy you (just a little bit), but you do give me great optimism that I can maybe do the same one day.

I loved the poem - there is nothing so comforting as the wind billowing through the fingers of a willow tree when you are lying beneath it.

Kat

Unknown said...

Congrats on your book receiving such a fine review. This is a very strong poem, & certainly deserving to be a title poem for collection.

The lady in Red said...

Dear Rose Marie, congratulations for the book as well the review.This motivates me keep on trying writing in my second language. Thanks for sharing and have a very nice week,
Best wishes,
Rosana

Rose Marie Raccioppi said...

This is certainly a "Feelin'Good Sunday" - robins singing outside my window, nature in loving abundance, friends in cyberspace all in celebration... Thank You Dear Karen, Kat and John.

Karen said...

You have expressed your oneness beautifully in your late day musings. Blessed day.

Sheila said...

Congratulations on your new book and on such a glowing review. A comment I read recently on Tolkien's spiritual imagery seems relevant to your work, especially today - "For Tolkien, the individual details of nature have spiritual significance that ascend a ladder from the physical world to the spiritual."

Rose Marie Raccioppi said...

Karen, Thank you for including me in your travels this day. So blessed it be.

Mairi, Thank you for the Tolkien quote - it is indeed exceedingly real for me.

The first poetry section in, "The Wind and the Willow," is titled, "The Spectator's Eye," - once nature in all its wonder and mystery is experienced, we have "Revelation," the next grouping of poems, followed by, "The Speaking Soul," "Being," "Pebbles Upon the Path," "Spirit's Call,""Beyond Despair," and the ultimate return to "Innocence and Delight." Eight cycles, to speak to the manifest of all above, all below, now and infinity.

Yes, "...the individual details of nature have spiritual significance that ascend a ladder from the physical world to the spiritual."