CELEBRATION OF SAMATHA
By: t. kilgore splake
The Vertin Press
P.O. Box 508
Calumet, Michigan 49913
56 Pages / Price: $17.50
Make checks and money order payable to t.k. splake
Review By: Charles P. Ries
Word Count: 312
I am always curious to see what poets can do with long
writing. I know that for many it is a journey often considered,
but seldom taken. I was pleased then to see t. kilgore splake
take the leap with his novella entitled, “A Celebration of
Samantha”. This is love story made all the more poignant
because it also looks at the end of life. I was surprised that
splake, who can write sometimes painfully long poems in
stream of consciousness prose style, was able to reign himself
in to tell this very sweet story. Here we find the Gray Beard
Dancer has fallen in love with Elizabeth the young counter
waitress at his local coffee shop. She has a young eight-year-
old daughter named, Samantha who gives this story much of
its depth. Told over thirteen chapters, it also includes black
and white photos that depict the various places splake shares
with us on this journey. This blending of prose and photo gives
the story a memoir kind of intimacy. And while splake calls his
book a work of fiction, it is hard to believe there is much
distance between what is on the page and his life. Splake
reflects on the end of his life, while celebrating love with
Elizabeth, and becoming an endearing, wise and thoughtful
friend to Samantha. As with all really good stories, I was left
at the end wondering, “How did it all work out? Did they stay
together?” I wanted more, but realized that fifty-six pages of
prose may be all the prose we will get from a writer whose
inclinations and interests seem more connected to poetry than
long fiction, but I wish this weren’t so. I wanted splake to
move this story forward another two hundred pages and take
me in and out of the deep waters of love in his very unique
fashion.