Announcing the release of “The River Within,” Ravenna’s latest poetry title, by Ann Taylor of Massachusetts, recording “her surprise at the natural world and her own surprising responses to nature’s enduring harmonies.” (quote by Parkman Howe, Poetry Editor of Appalachia)
“Enriched with felt experience, classical knowledge and fidelity to a shared literary heritage, the poems in The River Within are page after page of pure pleasure” (Joan Houlihan)
Cleopatra’s Conquest
baskets of fresh olives, and the sturgeon
delivered by slaves fingering flutes?
Where are the flamingo tongues,
ostrich heads, milk-fattened snails,
hares winged like Pegasus?”
Mark Antony mocked, nibbling
the plain pancake, chicken leg,
dessert fig placed before him.
“And where the other twenty-one courses,
the jesters, jugglers, revolving ceiling,
the sprinkler’s subtle perfume?”
“Call me the Queen of Plenty,” she replied,
announcing her aim to devour
the most lavish meal ever all by herself.
She removed her huge pearl earring,
the largest in history, a king’s treasure,
richer than all Roman banquets combined,
dropped it into her cup of wine vinegar,
and as it sizzled
drank it.