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An Aging Poet Writes An Homage to a Memorable Classmate Set to Music

By Djelloul Marbrook  

I don't know exactly how Adeline Compton came into my life, but she was twelve when she appeared, and this poem, "Adeline Compton", records that moment. It has been set to music by Julie Last, the sound engineer and singer who recorded Brushstrokes and Glances and Far from Algiers, my two books of poetry. "Adeline Compton" is one of the poems in Brushstrokes and Glances. If you enjoy this poem, you will probably enjoy the book.

But her story does not end here. She grows up and becomes a major character in Light Piercing Water, a trilogy of novels that I hope you will someday be able to read. In the novel she is an English conservator of ancient musical instruments and an Aikido adept. Her life is intertwined with the lives of an Arab-American Navy hero and merchant seaman, a former IRA bomber who runs a bar on Tenth Avenue in Manhattan, a Chechen arms dealer and many other colorful characters.

Adeline is in some ways my homage to a memorable English girl who attended a boarding school with me in West Islip, New York, during World War II. She ran like the wind and served me air tea in a gazebo in painted tin cups. I have called an unpublished poetry manuscript Air Tea With Dolores, but I remain uncertain of whether it's finished. I think Dolores would like Adeline.

Djelloul Marbrook is a retired newspaperman. His second book of poems, Brushstrokes and Glances, will be published by Deerbrook Editions on December 20, 2010. His first book of poems, Far From Algiers, won the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize from Kent State University in 2007 and was published in 2008. It won the International Book Award in 2010. His novella, Artemisia's Wolf, will be published by Prakash Books of India in December. His novella, Saraceno, was recently published as an e-book. His story, Artists Hill, adapted from the second novel of an unpublished trilogy, won the Literal Latté first prize in fiction in 2008. The pioneering e-book publisher, Online Originals (UK), published his novella, Alice MIller's Room, in 1999.

Del's book, Far From Algiers: http://upress.kent.edu/books/Marbrook_D.htm
New review of Far from Algiers: http://www.rattle.com/blog/2009/05/far-from-algiers-by-djelloul-marbrook/
Artists Hill, Literal Latté's fiction first prize: http://www.literal-latte.com/author/djelloulmarbrook/
His blog: http://www.djelloulmarbrook.com
His mother's art: http://www.juanitaguccione.com
His aunt's art: http://www.irenericepereira.com