LocalLit book review: ‘Tilt-O-Whirl on the Farm’ by Cele Bona

Last year, I received a review copy of the poetry chapbook “Tilt-A-Whirl on the Farm,” which Joliet native Cele Bona had published last year at the age of 83.

Bona hoped I could write a story after its release. But then COVID happened and the story was pushed back, although not forgotten.

Recently, I read the chapbook and was just enchanted by the twists in her writing, as enticing as any good work of fiction. Bona deals with the depths of life, magical and tragical, between the pages of this book.

Some parts will make you smile in wonder. Some will make you feel sad and wonder if they’re true. Some will make you stop and think and wonder at the depravity in the world.

So I reached out to her and she was delighted to talk to me. I’m hoping you’ll give this little book a read.

The publisher, Finishing Line Press, did not write a summary for the book, not on its website, on the book’s back cover or for Amazon.

So I’ll let the poetry speak for itself. Here are some really delightful passages:

If I had obeyed and followed the dictum: Do not go out alone at night, I would not have walked barefoot – 15 – the dirt road to the pond, a full moon flooding my long white nightgown. (“Holding the Moon Between My Legs”).

We eight women, all aspirants to holiness, hand-milked the cows at dawn. There was the slurp of silage, the drip of udder cloths wrung out over pails of disinfecting water, the sounds of stantions jangling, tails slapping (“Evodia and the Snow Goose”)

Like a fox she flew across the field, lunch in a red kerchief tied to a stick, set like a flag on her shoulder (“playing hooky”)

The day my mother has her stroke I am at the shore – I walk into the water and begin to shake, no one can still or warm me. (“Outrigger”)

“At noon I spy a spider in my spoon, the quiet fan above goes round and round and round. (”Tilt-A-Whirl on the Farm”).

The chapbook is $13.99 on the Finishing Line Press website: finishinglinepress.com. The book is just 46 pages and it’s worth every penny.

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Each week LocalLit will deliver an original short and family-friendly story (or a book review) by a local author to the newsletter’s subscribers.

Authors with a connection to our readership area may submit. Submission does not guarantee acceptance.

Contact Denise M. Baran-Unland at 815-280-4122 or dunland@shawmedia.com.