Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Podcast #Poetry #Flash Fiction – The Long Drop and Key Lime Pie by Sally Cronin

Some more poetry and flash fiction from one of my collections.

Thank you for joining me and today some poetry and flash fiction… a fateful trek up a mountain and a mother-in-law’s visit….

Sally Cronin – Smorgasbord Blog Magazine · Smorgasbord Poetry And Flash Fiction The Long Drop And Key Lime Pie

 

The Long Drop

Let’s take a hike he invited. Up where the sky meets the mountain top. Won’t there be bears I questioned. Not at this time of year he assured me. Excited and well equipped, we trod the long uneven trail. Finally, at the top, he turned and cautioned me to be careful. However, the beauty of the view needed to be celebrated. He gently moved me into position at the edge and stepped back camera in hand. He waved me backwards smiling encouragingly. My last sight of his face revealed a satisfied and knowing look.

Forest animals
gratefully inspect bounty
fallen from above.

Key Lime Pie

My mother-in-law is coming to dinner tonight with the rest of the family. I am staring at a piece of paper she gave me on her last visit, which provides a step-by-step guide to making the perfect key lime pie. Apparently hers are legendary, and have become a tradition on my husband’s birthday since he was five. Even though we have only been married a few months; I know that his mother will be looking for flaws. Which is why I have made a sherry trifle, a dessert I know my husband loves; a new tradition of our own.

©Sally Cronin 2022

One of the recent reviews for my latest collection.

Dec 30, 2022 Alex Craigie rated it five stars it was amazing

(The beautiful pictures in this book were reduced to monochrome on my Kindle Oasis, but I was able to look at them on my iPad afterwards.)

I’ve read several books by Sally Cronin and she never disappoints.
Variety is the Spice of Life is a volume of poetry, flash fiction and short stories. It isn’t easy to convey much in such a restricted word count but the author is a master wordsmith and excels every time.

The poetry is syllabic, which adds another layer of difficulty, yet the content within these restrictions flows naturally, summing up emotions and scenes more powerfully than a wordier description. The results capture the essence of the subject matter in a way that made me see it from a fresh perspective.

There’s poetry that beautifully expresses the human condition including the damaging silence in Rejection, the enduring love in Kinship, and the warning in Blossom of the fleeting nature of time. I loved her description of different forms of lullaby, including one where fears are allayed by the deep tones of a father’s voice, and there’s a moving poem asking us to consider the plight of those fleeing tyranny.

Ms Cronin’s writing about the natural world reveals a close observation of the appearance and behaviours of the wildlife within it. She describes magpies with an eye for treasure, starlings moving in a murmuration, butterflies showing their warrior markings. The descriptions and wordplay are original and vivid and I’ve become a fan of syllabic poetry through the power of her examples.

The flash fiction is equally as good and often ends with twists that were humorous, shocking or heart-meltingly tender. In Neighbourhood Watch we are witnesses to domestic abuse, other tales are gentler, some have a paranormal touch. The Healer was a longer story of superstition and fear that was disquieting and heart-warming in equal measure.

All of Ms Cronin’s characters are individual and distinctive. In The Village this comes to the fore when she describes the reactions of the inhabitants to the announcement of the outbreak of WWII. I found it intensely moving. The final story made me smile and the life-affirming message is a wonderful way to end such an eclectic collection.

Life is often hectic, but the brevity of these pieces means that they can be sampled whenever there’s a few minutes to sit down and enjoy one or two of them. Having said that, I didn’t manage to ration mine and read them into the night…
I hope Sally Cronin is working on another volume – I will buy it as soon as it is available!  

Thank you for listening and if you would like to know more about my books and their reviews you can find them on my books page Sally’s Books and Reviews 2022