In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

56 Artemisia Absinthium I look out the window, wonder if this French liqueur has influenced the way I see the leaves sprouting from baby green to sage adolescence— the color of risk & knowing. Absinthe: bitter wormwood of silvery leaves and nodding flowers. Blend aromatic fennel, star anise, juniper, and dittany. Add lemon balm, angelica, hyssop, coriander and macerate until narcotic green. Van Gogh poured its color onto canvas, thick impastos of ochre and emerald spilling into The Night Café. Hemingway, Wilde, Poe, and Baudelaire reached for its ripe graphic fruit, a prickly essence prodding openings for poems and stories. The leaves in my yard flutter like café awnings. I imagine Lautrec, his hollow cane filled with absinthe, its heady anise perfume— Gauguin driven by it to make his colors bolder. Artists and poets gathering for the green hour. Picasso lifts his glass, If only we could pull out our brains and use only our eyes, toasting La Fée Verte, nymph who makes his wish come true. ...

Share