Description

 

Bento by the Sea

by Sue Fagalde Lick

Food is more than fuel for our bodies. It can be the milk that spills, the bento bowl that heals, the popovers flavored with grief, or the soup in which one sees the truth. Sue Fagalde Lick’s poems in Bento by the Sea look at food in all these ways and more.

In the title poem, two widows find comfort in a simple takeout supper they eat while watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean and contemplating how one goes on alone. In “Ripe,” a daughter caring for her aging father enjoys a ripe orange from the tree she gave him as a tiny plant on Father’s Day many years earlier. In “Charlie’s Dinner,” an elderly widower living in a nursing home takes delight in having someone cook for him.

 

Early Praise

The opening poems in Sue Fagalde Lick’s charming chapbook engage in a contemporary debate most readers can identify with: what constitutes a healthy diet. Although veggie burgers have replaced baloney sandwiches, the narrator wonders: given constantly shifting guidelines, what will our children’s children eat when today’s repasts are deemed unsound? (“Sacrilege”). However, Lick considers that it is not what just what we eat that’s essential to good health, but it’s having someone to share a meal with. She is a master at capturing the loneliness experienced by those who have lost a spouse when what was once a communal event transforms into an isolating one. Bento by the Sea is engaging, poignant, and nourishing. Readers will enjoy feasting on these poems again and again.

––CAROLYN MARTIN, author of Brainstorming

I wholeheartedly recommend this invitation to a meal of the heart. In these pages, Sue Fagalde Lick reminds us that in poetry, as in memory, and in life, we are in communion with each other, even when it may seem like we take our meals alone. These poems speak from a place of solitude, gratitude, and grief. They reach out with a quiet resilience, to share familiar menus, flavors, and feelings, and in doing so, Sue has set a table for us all. Sit down, enjoy.

—CHARLES CASTLE, author of Chasing Down the Storm and On the Beach of Borrowed Time

Bento by the Sea is a memoir in food poems. In grade school, poet Sue Fagalde Lick is one of the kids “sticking out our chocolate tongues.” As an adult, she buys a can of the Sloppy Joe mix her mother used to serve. Maybe just this once. For me. Eating out after her husband’s death, she can still pretend / he’s waiting for me down the road. When a woman from church asks how to be alone, she tells her, You just sleep, eat, and go on. And so she does, with wit, wisdom, and grace.

—PENELOPE SCAMBLY SCHOTT, author of On Dufur Hill

The act of eating changes at different stages of our lives. In Bento by the Sea, Sue Fagalde Lick brings home how the basic need of satisfying hunger becomes entwined in historical period, social class, religion, location, and community. In childhood, we strive to balance the joy of crafting baloney sculptures of dinosaurs with social divides played out in the school cafeteria. Over time, diets become embedded with a sense of right and wrong. A more sophisticated understanding of nutrition taints memories of Sloppy Joes. Relationships and community become more complicated. In the writing about food, Sue doesn’t shy away from anger, loss and mourning. Some meals arrive with a twist of aloneness, some come wrapped in memories of joyous holiday rituals. These poems honor those changes.

—TRINA GAYNON, author of Quince, Rose, Grace of God

In Bento by the Sea, Sue Fagalde Lick serves up life one poem at a time. Food is the starting point—baloney sandwiches, sloppy joes, holiday meals—but what lingers is everything gathered around the table: childhood, first dates, family, love, loss, laughter, and the wisdom of living. In this intimate collection, Lick treats you like a friend, inviting you to listen while she shares the stories of her life—openly, honestly, and without holding back. Food brings us to the table, but we soon realize that it’s about so much more than food: it’s about who we are, who we’re with, what we’re surviving, and what we will carry forward. Lick pulls up a chair for us all. Come hungry for poetry—and leave with an appreciation for all that’s been given.

—JENNIFER ROOD, author of Present and Speaking Everywhere, Past President, Oregon Poetry Association

Sue Lick’s new, beautiful poetry collection examines the childhood, relationships, loss, aging, and memories that make up a life. With close narratives and observations about near-misses, real misses, and confessions, you are right there with her. Equal parts funny and moving, this collection will haunt you in the best way.

—LORNA ROSE, poet and essayist at The Good Men Project

 

About the Author

Sue Fagalde Lick lives alone in the forest on the Oregon coast, which is a good thing because her writing projects, books, and musical instruments take up the whole house. She writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her recent publications include the poetry book Dining Al Fresco with My Dog, the novel Back to Ona Beach, and a memoir, No Way Out of This: Loving a Partner with Alzheimer’s. Her latest obsession is her Substack “Can I Do It Alone?” which takes an honest look at the realities of living alone by choice or by chance.

When not writing, Sue sings and plays piano, guitar, mandolin and ukulele, takes long walks in the woods, and eats like a queen.