Noelle, An Unexpected Surprise

George's mom was a writer, and from what he has told me, she was an award-winning, well-known Irish poet. I never got a chance to meet her, I've only seen photos and her book of poetry, Promiscuous Winds. He has told me about her book tours in small coffee shops and bookstores across the States. About where her book was published (in Ashland, Oregon by Storyline Press), mere hours from where I grew up. Sometimes you hear stories, and go, great, blah, blah, blah. But then this happens:

I was reading Orangutan by Colin Broderick, a memoir about being Irish in America, addiction, alcoholism and how he barely makes it out in the end. It's a horrify and fascinating read. I devoured it. And here comes the surprise....on page 103, first full paragraph, I stumbled upon this:

"A local poet named Rick Pernod starting a poetry-reading series in the café around this time. It was an instantaneous success. Pernod was booking some of the top poets in the world to come to this little café in the Bronx. For a burgeoning writer it was a priceless experience. The little room would be packed shoulder to shoulder. I'd sit in the corner, high on codeine, with my cappuccino, smoking cigarettes, and witnessing literary history in the making. Poets like Donald Hall, Stanley Kunitz, Nina Cassian, John Ashberry, Pierre Martory, Eamon Grennan, Gerald Stern, Paul Muldoon, Patricia Smith, Noelle Vial, and my personal favorite, Billy Collins. On a Tuesday night you had to arrive early to get in the door. I was always there early."

There in print, in a book George picked up from Barnes & Noble, was his mother's name, Noelle Vial, in a paragraph about top poets in the world and literary history. How amazing is that???