This past winter was unusually brutal, with snow and ice and prolonged freezes that caused pipes to burst and killed citrus trees all over New Orleans. Then suddenly it is spring, eighty-three degrees outside, and I am cutting down a dead lemon tree, with the music from Jazz Fest, a mile away, as my afternoon soundtrack. For many years, that tree fed me and my neighbors, as well as the patrons to the Irish pub half a block away. Given to us as baby shower gift when it was a mere twig, we planted it in the front yard, where it grew for ten years, stretching well above the house and providing hundreds of lemons every season. Losing it has been devastating for sentimental reasons (my daughter, of course, can’t remember the tree not being there) and practical ones: we’ve lost our shade from the relentless afternoon sun beating on our floor-to-ceiling windows, and we’ve lost the fruit that so many people enjoyed.
I like feeding people, whether it’s food—there’s always enough to share, no matter the available amount—or good writing. The spring issue of The Southern Review has plenty of great poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from which to choose, all of it nourishing. Because I thought everyone could use a bit of light and hope, the issue opens with Ed Falco’s poem, “In the Kentucky Mountains.” The poem tells the story of driving at night and trying to go through water, “only to discover its depths.” The car begins to fill and the driver climbs onto the roof and is eventually rescued by a family who lives nearby. They take him to their cabin, feed him “hot milk and honey,” clothe him, and give him a place to sleep. In the morning, after they drive him into town to get help for his car, he realizes that even with the world as it is—often dark and perilous—this is also “where we live. / In just such a world. / This, too.” Such a lovely statement of hope and community. You can listen to Falco read his poem in our audio gallery, which also features poems by Julia Levine, Nancy Chen Long, Benjamin Morris, Elisabeth Murawski, Leah Poole Osowski, and Freeman Rogers. Prose in the gallery this season includes fiction from Andy Plattner and an excerpt of an essay from Courtney Zoffness.
Zoffness’s “Holy Body” is another work in the issue that focuses on hope and providing for others. In her essay, which looks at surrogacy and the Jewish faith, the author’s friend Carrie, who is a mother of three, becomes a surrogate because she “wants to do something irrefutably good.” What a great thing to do for other humans: give them the baby they so desperately want to have. Zoffness just won the Sunday Times EFG Story Award, the biggest story award in the world, for her fiction.
The art this season is by Emily Cheng, a New York City–based painter. You can view her featured work here. Her paintings are abstract but evoke landscapes, especially the cover image, which feels very cool with its green and white mountains. I imagine somewhere in the middle there could be a place for a tree.
I’m looking forward to planting a new tree in my front yard. My daughter and I have discussed possibilities: maybe an orange tree for community feeding again or maybe an eastern redbud, which is colorful and fast-growing, providing beauty and shade. Either will be nourishing, one way or another. Now all we have to do is choose.