Commentaries - October 2015

Rachael Ray and All the Whiskey in Heaven

People magazine 10/19/15

Ray talks about the event and the poem in a TV interview here.

All the Whiskey in Heaven

Not for all the whiskey in heaven
Not for all the flies in Vermont
Not for all the tears in the basement
Not for a million trips to Mars

 Not if you paid me in diamonds
Not if you paid me in pearls
Not if you gave me your pinky ring
Not if you gave me your curls
 

Not for all the fire in hell
Not for all the blue in the sky
Not for an empire of my own
Not even for peace of mind 

No, never, I’ll never stop loving you
Not till my heart beats its last
And even then in my words and my songs
I will love you all over again

Slippages

Sixteen Ritos, from a photo by Joan Alvarez.  K. Dykstra, 2015.
Sixteen Ritos, from a photo by Joan Alvarez. K. Dykstra, 2015.

In 2006 Roberto Manzano conducted an interview with his fellow writer Rito Ramón Aroche in Havana.  AMNIOS magazine published the interview in 2012, and it was later reprinted at the website Cuba Literaria (overseen by the Cuban Book Institute).  Unfortunately their page doesn’t currently load on any of my browsers, only a short line warning of malicious code.  Perhaps this replacement is appropriate, since Aroche does something to deconstruct the framework of virtually every question asked by Manzano.  Here are excerpts from their conversation, brought into English.