Seasoned by Karen Betz Mastracchio

$14.99

 

Karen Mastracchio is a poet with a delicate touch. As such, she has seasoned her first poetry collection with vivid yet delicate images that soften even the hard parts of life, combining occasions of nostalgia with the ability to be clearly present in the moment. With poems like “Memories,” “The Carolinian,” “Gatesville, TX,” “Unfinished Business,” “Resurrection,” “In the Garden,” “Whiplash,” “Riding the Peace Train,” and “Homecoming,” Karen reminds us that life is a winding journey through scattered stardust and that we are ballasted by a wafting smell of hope. In these pages, the reader will find moments of grace, insight, and promise.

–Eric Blanchard, author of The Good Parts

 

“Karen’s work, Seasoned, enlivens the soul. Her profound ability to weave artistry and beauty within the lines of her poetry, invites readers to experience life with all five senses and enlightened thoughtfulness. Her inspired poetry provides soulful lessons from everyday life. It also keenly captures nature’s innate ability to bring us joy – if we will only observe with wonder, and listen. Seasons is a sheer delight to read and experience.”

–Angelique Barber, Poet and Writer

 

In Seasoned, Karen Mastracchio guides the reader through “the sensual embrace of experience.” With a body “worn firm with resolution,” Mastracchio spotlights the beauty, wisdom, and challenges that accompany aging. She reminds us that while “age wrinkles edges,” we always have reasons “to still be singing praise for the sunrise.” This skillfully-written poetry collection is ageless.

–Loretta Diane Walker, Member, Texas Institute of Letters, Phillis Wheatley Award Winner

 

 

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Seasoned

by Karen Betz Mastracchio

$14.99, paper

979-8-88838-023-9

2022

This collection of poems is born of watching the seasons in all their moods and variances.  Paralleled with nature’s cycles are poems chronicling the human journey, reminiscences of various moments in life. Word play on “seasoned” enters when we begin to see how each disappointment or joy adds a particular flavor to our lives – how we become “seasoned.”  A motif of light runs through these poems that offer hope amidst mundane challenges.  Like nature, a resilience and beauty exist in each season of life. May these poems remind us of that.

By keeping journals and short writing assignments along with her high school students, Karen Mastracchio sowed the seeds from which her poetry emerged.  After years of teaching the joy and craft of writing to others, Karen invested time in harvesting what had been dormant.  She joined fellow poets at Poets Northwest and started sharing her poetry, submitting here and there.  Karen’s poetry has been published in several anthologies including The Texas Poetry Calendar and NFSPS Encore Prize Poems.

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