Melinda Rizzo

Late Snow and Hellebore Melinda Rizzo

Soul food. Transcending and transformational.

-Reverend Anthony R. "Tony" Pompa, Dean and Rector of The Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, PA

A magnificent, magnifying view of a seemingly ordinary life! Melinda Rizzo's Late Snow and Hellebore begins with "It all comes down to this..." and ends with "There will be more... It is not such a bad deal after all." From field to table, family to faith, all is fair game. She aims for both the head and the heart...piercing and playful. "And the head of a pin will be crowded by angels/in black leather boots tied at their ankles." In Late Snow and HelleboreMelinda Rizzo takes the reader to "toes testing how far the edge extends" and dares to lean forward.

-Patricia Goodrich, author of Stone Hunting in Transylvania, Woman With A Wandering Eye, How the Moose Got To Be, Verda's House and Red Mud

Melinda Rizzo's Late Snow and Hellebore begins with blackberries, " luscious, plum-colored, nubby and nested," but it isn't just a crafted and compelling book "about nourishment," the nourishment of the earth and its bounty, the nourishment of language and its own kind of abundance, the nourishment of faith and family and the fertility of the imagination. It is a book that nourishes. We feast on artichoke and alphabet. We are sustained by Jersey peaches, Savon de Marseille, and soup, a Lenten spirit and an Easter promise, the music of pear blossoms and wintering bluebirds, the sounds of color and the taste of Perugia chocolate. " It's not a bad deal" are the very last words of this startlingly beautiful volume that offers us a way to live in a fallen world and find nourishment there, joy and meaning. I echo the poet's own words: D' accord! -Christopher Bursk, author of The First Inhabitants of Arcadia