View from the Middle Of The Road V: New Observations

By Lucinda Clark, R. Xavier Clark and Silvana Marconi

View from the Middle of the Road V is the fifth volume in a series contributed and published by P.R.A. founder Lucinda Clark. Each volume has included the work of fellow authors and poets. This volume picks up where the last leaves off.
The work of two new voices share space in this volume. Silvana Marconi shares an excerpt from her new novel Sobrevivi: I Survived. It is a memoir of her journey as a survivor of domestic violence.
R. Xavier Clark shares the joys and triumph of watching his father learn to master the dance of love, tango.
Lucinda Clark waxes poetic on the new experiences she has had since View I. Thoughts on her kids, now adults. golf, lipstick and current events. Her goal is to make readers laugh, feel the shifts time has a way of revealing; and maybe shed a tear for fellow travelers lost along the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781941416150

Book preview

excerpt)

Mantra of a Bridge Builder

I am a bridge builder.

I build based upon where

I travel.

I build on happy days and sad days:

I have built during times I felt I could not—

and possibly should not—go on.

My bridge building is based on

following a road;

a dominant thought

changes in my world view.

Added to each bridge structure are

things I have seen,

things I have heard,

things I have read.

Ideas I have opened and closed

my eyes, heart, and mind to.

The length and strength of some of these bridges are

undetermined and

much too far away

for my mind’s eye to reach;

only the passage of time

will determine.

Each bridge’s purpose is to open new

gateways,

passageways,

and give opportunity

to those who are and are not like me.

To enrich all just by having come this way.

Maybe,

just maybe,

when my bridge building days are done,

what has been built

(even as I lapse into dust)

lives on.

Four Roads

Four roads diverged into a yellow wood.

Sorry I could not travel all

and still be one traveler.

Long I stood

and looked at all as long as I could.

Several years later all still equally stood

trenched deep with many a

success and failure of effort.

Four roads diverged and

I had taken them all.

It is only now that I

can see the difference.

Because

I get to the wood and find things changed;

I do not judge it as good or bad,

so changed am I from my journey,

for it is the realization

that, at some point,

I had taken all four roads.

I was never one traveler

but four rolled up

to look like one.

911 Update

We awoke on 9/11/01 to

planes crashing into the Twin Towers

acts of heroic bravery in

Reviews for View from the Middle Of The Road V

[dora0swiftcoffee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is a very short collection of a couple of poems and two short stories.I found the poems excellently written, yet for some reason they didn't suck me in. It's probably a me problem and not the poetry, though. I loved the topics and the perspectives they gave, and I can't really say anything bad about the wording, either. Objectively they are very good, I can see that, I simply tend to enjoy the kind of poetry more that sound like music to my ears. Does that make sense...? I'm not sure. Anyways, though these were not exactly my kind of poems, I enjoyed their content and meaning, and I can honestly say they are very well-written.The first short story (written by R. Xavier Clark) was my favorite thing in this collection. It was sweet and had a bit of humor, too. I enjoyed reading it and I would like to read more of this.The second short story was good, too, but I didn't really feel like it was a short story. It was an excerpt from a book the author (Silvana Marconi) has written, and while it made her book sound very interesting, it didn't really make any sense without getting the whole story. It was more like an advertisement for the book - if it's supposed to be that, it works, though, because I'd be happy to read that book.I give this book 3 stars, with adding that it's simply given to this book, and that it made me want to read more of these authors/poet, so it's absolutely a rating of this particular book - having read more from them, I'd probably rate their work higher.

[izzybkn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While I found some of the stories to be okay, overall I was disappointed in the book and wish for more depth in what they could have been developed to be. I can certainly appreciate their quality, however.

[sheriawilkinson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

View from the Middle of the Road V: New Observations by R. Xavier Clark, Lucinda J Clark & Silvia MarconiA varieties of excellent poems and two short stories. One story is humorous the other more series both enjoyable. Each poem has its own style, all memorable and enjoyable. I highly recommend View from the Middle of the Road V: New Observations to poetry lovers (Also would make a great stocking stuffer this Christmas).