Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 24, 1993 TAG: 9310260306
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Mariflo Stephens, a fiction writer and journalist, wrote the book, ``Some Say Tomato,'' to boost the appeal of poetry in the United States and to celebrate the existing appeal of the tomato, however one pronounces it.
Contributors include U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, songwriter John McCutcheon, and poets Maxine Kumin, Enid Shomer, Pablo Neruda, and David Huddle who is also a Wythe County native.
Some of the contributors are as young as age 7.
The seed for cultivating such a book was planted when Stephens heard a friend, poet Judy Longley, reading her poem ``Cash Crop'' about a farm family's efforts to raise tomatoes.
As she listened, Stephens said, ``I was a child again rummaging among tomato vines for some magic.''
Another poet friend happened to mention a poem she had written with a central image of a tomato. Stephens had written a couple tomato poems of her own, then began to notice more of them around.
She searched collections and anthologies for them, got permission from their writers to re-publish them, and sought original works from potential contributors ranging from Pulitzer Prize winners and friends to her own children.
The book includes a page in memory of poet William Stafford, who died recently but had composed a poem, ``Voices in the Garden,'' specifically for this collection.
It is being published by Northwood Press, and will be available by mail or in bookstores for $7.50. Further information is available from Stephens at Northwood Press, 108 2nd St. SW, #5, Charlottesville, Va. 22902.
by CNB