bottled poetry
judi bagnato
“Wine is bottled poetry.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
Wine and poetry have always made great companions. In regards to poetry, I have willingly followed Baudelaire’s invocation: “Enivrez-vous, enivrez-vous sans cesse…Get drunk, get drunk all the time! On wine, on poetry or on virtue – just as you please…” and I’m very fond of the Omar Khayyam classic verse : “A flask of wine, a book of verse – and thou” which describes a perfect state of happiness: a lover, some wine, and poetry -whether the state of giddiness comes from love or the wine, who knows?- Drinking for taste and not intoxication, (although one summer in Aix, this was not a mutually exclusive affair with certain Chateau Grand Seuil bottles), I am not an indifferent wine drinker. In fact, I fondly remember my first glass of Cloudy Bay. The experience was as memorable as described by a wine critic: “Drinking one’s first New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is like having sex for the first time… ” and like an infatuated teenager, I wanted to share this event with the world. I have a memory of writing to friends to describe fruits suddenly blooming in my mouth and sunlight trapped in a bottle. This was no extravagant hyperbole. It was, trust me on that one, a grand experience. Lately I have indulged more in deep garnet Argentinian malbecs and neglected the lovely whites from the Marlborough region but I returned last night to my first love, and let me assure you the magic was intact: the wine still exploded in my mouth with raw, unadorned beauty.
“Wine comes in at the mouth – sings the poet Yeats,
and love comes in at the eye;
That’s all we shall know for truth
before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.”
As I read in the Song of Solomon: “Let me kiss thee with the kisses of my mouth, for thy love is better than wine …” , I rejoice that we don’t have to choose between love, poetry and wine… and we can enjoy all three- simultaneously!
Michele Voltaire Marcelin
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Michèle Voltaire Marcelin is a poet/writer, performer and painter who was born and raised in Haiti, sojourned in Chile, and currently lives in the United States. The publication of her first novel “La Désenchantée” (CIDIHCA, Montréal-2006) was followed by its Spanish translation “La Desencantada” and two other books of poetry and prose: “Lost and Found” and “Amours et Bagatelles” (CIDIHCA, Montréal-2009) - translated into Spanish by Editorial ALBA as "Amores y cosas sin importancia" - all of which garnered rave reviews. Her writings are also featured in 3 anthologies published in France: "Cahier Haiti" (published by RAL'M-2009), "Terre de Femmes" (Editions Bruno Doucey-2011) "Revue Intranqu'îllités" (2012). She speaks and writes fluently French, English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. She has a BFA from the Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts at CUNY and a Masters from The New School for Social Research.
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