FOR LES SARDINES

A toast to the members of Les Sardines.

Due to inclement weather, the meeting of my writing group was cancelled on Thursday night. I told the group that "I am going to stay home this evening with a nice cold beer [and] a good book." I kept good on my promise.

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Snow Cap Ale, a Winter Warmer or an English Strong Ale by Pyramid Breweries

This ale poured the color of garnet with a thin ivory head. The nose was of a lightly spiced red wine with a hint of apple. The flavor is of beef broth, red wine, cloves, and cinnamon. There is also a wee bit of an alcohol bite and a slight tickle of the tongue from its carbonation. Each drink provides a rich start and a dry, clean, ticklish finish.

The bottle calls Snow Cap a "full-bodied winter warmer," and it is indeed full-bodied, but without being too heavy.

This is a great winter beer. It is simple and bold of nose and of flavor. That simplicity doesn't mean that it compromises anything. It is an extremely well brewed beer.

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"For years we've been walking in mud to our knees without thinking,
sucked into the slop and going on though its clutching is killing."
—page 189, "Flood Plain" by Aleksey Parshchikov, as found in Contemporary Russian Poetry: An Anthology, edited by Evgeny Bunimovich and J. Kates

I am jumping around through the 489 pages of this great collection of the work of forty-four contemporary Russian poets. It is like getting to walk through a candy store. I am choosing poems that catch my eye—titles, content, language, layout. I am reading. I am rereading. I am reading aloud. I am having fun and enjoying myself.