In Search of Salt

Proceedings begin with the overtly sexual, before relocating to an era of hushed meetings and first loves’, their surroundings embellished with vivid imagery. And within the proverbial four walls lies warm breath, drawn blinds and DIY, while pianos are played with ‘monotonous determination’. Outside, though, thunder detonates, a rainbow is hummed and seals slough themselves from ‘volcanic chez lounges’. A cap is doffed to mythology, too, by way of lairs of Trolls. If a sense of childhood pervades these poems, it is the fruit of love, however, that quickens the pulse of Paulina Vanderbilt, and namely her own son and daughter, where the dearness of narratives is juxtaposed with the unspeakable massacre of that at Beslan. Moreover, it may be said that from being blinded by their light, the poem Dancing in the Dark - a Springsteen gem - brings matters to a close, whom for her is a deity and a major influence towards the shaping of these words.

Stolen Hours

We’ll not enjoy the dawn together,
watch her slide aside with rosy fingers
the blinds we hide behind.

Ours is a love of stolen hours
that cannot be accounted for,
a melodrama we choose
in the name of serendipity,
and so pursue with little guilt.

The best liars, after all, are believers.

Our love is a non-event:
the spring in my step,
the velvet in my touch,
the honey in my voice,
the upturn of my lips.

I trace your fingers
on my skin
after you have left.

Bio: Paulina Vanderbilt – It took a move to Scotland, many good and some hard times, quiet encouragement from a few friends, two children, one cat and a dram of courage to go to that first Lemon Tree Writers Group, but then Paulina found her feet as a poet. Ironically, the publication of this pamphlet coincides with a move away from Aberdeen, back to the Netherlands. Still, poetry knows no time or place, and neither do the themes of love, lust and family as presented in this collection.
 
Paulina VanderBilt studied English Language and Literature, and also Library & Information Studies. She worked as a book rep, school librarian, hockey development officer and taught English at Banchory Academy. She currently teaches Latin & Greek in the Netherlands. In her spare time she sings and writes.