BOOK READING
The Long Game by Grace Cavalieri
Thursday, September 21, 2023 at 7:00 pm
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
(RSVP required)
Celebrate the release of Grace Cavalieri's The Long Game: New & Selected Poems with a reading followed by a reception and book signing. Grace currently serves as the Poet Laureate of Maryland, as well as the long-time host of the Library of Congress' Poet and the Poem series. She is the author of 26 books and chapbooks of poetry, including What The Psychic Said (Goss Publishing 2020) Showboat (Goss Publishing, 2019), and Other Voices, Other Lives (ASP, 2017) as well as numerous plays and librettos.
Her poems are noted for their empathy and detailed observational style, as in the example below:
Tomato Pies, 25 Cents
Tomato pies are what we called them, those days,
before Pizza came in,
at my Grandmother’s restaurant,
in Trenton New Jersey.
My grandfather is rolling meatballs
in the back. He studied to be a priest in Sicily but
saved his sister Maggie from marrying a bad guy
by coming to America.
Uncle Joey is rolling dough and spooning sauce.
Uncle Joey, is always scrubbed clean,
sobered up, in a white starched shirt, after
cops delivered him home just hours before.
The waitresses are helping
themselves to handfuls of cash out of the drawer,
playing the numbers with Moon Mullin
and Shad, sent in from Broad Street. 1942,
tomato pies with cheese, 25 cents.
With anchovies, large, 50 cents.
A whole dinner is 60 cents (before 6 pm).
How the soldiers, bussed in from Fort Dix,
would stand outside all the way down Warren Street,
waiting for this new taste treat,
young guys in uniform,
lined up and laughing, learning Italian,
before being shipped out to fight the last great war.
Doors open at 6:30 pm and program will begin 7:00 pm. Following the reading there will be a wine reception with the author.
Discounted parking available 2001 Pennsylvania Ave.
