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LAVA OF MY SOUL

Book Review by Dennis Moore

Iolanda Scripca, who lived in Eastern Europe for the first 24 years of her life, has written a collection of poetry and essays inspired by her life, seen through the eyes of her Soul. Now a North County resident, Scripca believes that all humans have "wings ... let's put them on." That seems to be the basic philosophy of her poems and essays, an example of which is "EPILOGUE OF LOVE," expressed succinctly; "To have lived not being loved at all - hunchbacked like a question mark - your soul continuously on parole imagine beauty in the dark

Perhaps we passed each other in the speed of different trains colliding with the time in one - abandoned newborn girl in need the other - useless vagabond and wine.

Was it your Soul who shook the Jacaranda tree and made it burst and rain with purple fairies? Or just a whispered cry within the depth of me - too much horizon and no space for prairies..." Like an abstract Picasso or Van Gogh painting, Scripca touches the soul through what is behind her words.

In her short essay, "THE JETLAG OF MY LIFE," Scripca benefits from her earlier collaboration with her dad in the translation and adaptation of a children's book by the Bulgarian author Leda Mileva, as she relives her own childhood.

In THE JETLAG OF MY LIFE, she states; "Two weeks ago I had to put on wings of courage and fly from San Diego to Bucharest, Romania. A stage of my life had ended abruptly, not once but twice within a very short period of time: the passing of my parents. The entire innocence of the snowdrop flowers from my childhood Cismigiu Park was crushed under the feet of a woman with dark hair, so dark that the sunrise dies at the beginning of each day for all the beautiful souls."

Scripca further states in THE JETLAG OF MY LIFE, which brings life and beauty to her words; "I went back to Cismigiu Park after twenty years and looked up and down the alleys to see my Dad walking home from work at the National Radio Station. He caressed my hair and I started giggling. I turned quickly so I could hug him but my Dad had hands of winter storm. In a shocking pirouette I turned toward the building of my high school so I could ask my Mom why Dad had hands of wind. I ran between the students who were leaving for the day and wanted to ask them if they'd seen the teacher and Principal Viorica Scripca. They passed through me like an echo of a totally new generation barely born in the 1980's." This excerpt of the author's "Lava Of My Soul" is typical of the collection of poems and essays, inspired by her homeland.

"A Little Bit Of Romania In Monterey, California (Short Interview with the Sunseri Family)," is another essay in Scripca's book that touches the soul.

"Lava Of My Soul" is this rare collection of poems and essays, that tugs at the heart, that I highly recommend to all poetry enthusiasts.

Dennis Moore is the book review editor of SDWriteway, and a member of the San Diego Writers/Editors Guild. He has written for LifeAfter50 Magazine in Pasadena, California, and the Baja Times Newspaper in Rosarito Beach, Mexico. Mr. Moore can be contacted at demoore21@sprint.blackberry.net.