A Dusting of Star Fall: Love Poems

In A Dusting of Star Fall: Love Poems, Sal Amico M. Buttaci, teacher, instructor, writer, and poet, has given us a gift to cherish. These poems, written for the poet s wife Sharon, contain a message for all of us in describing the fulfillment of a very human yearning the desire to express love, to cherish the beloved, and, in return, to be cherished. In one poem, A Winter Walk, the poet captures a fleeting moment of memory preserved like a symbol of separation, however momentary. In another poem, The Way You Looked at Me, he uses as a metaphor for love the image of a ship on its voyage to an earthly paradise and begs his love to take him there. Sal Buttaci s poems are written for his wife, but they are, in a sense, written for all of us. In his poem, On Display, he writes: how love/ when nurtured/ can long survive. He writes of love as the source of strength that sustains us through the trials and difficulties that sometimes befall us humans, and he reminds us also, in Lost at Sea, just what loveless means. With the wisdom of a long-time teacher, this poet urges us in his poems to find and keep that one essential quality: the giving and sharing of love that can accompany us through life and render us partners in a sublime world of our own making. Sal Buttaci is the author of several books, including A Family of Sicilians: Stories and Poems that contains some of his poems written in Sicilian and translated into English for our enjoyment. The book s poems and stories bring before us the essence of Sicilian life with all its humor, warmth, and friendship. Another book by Buttaci, Promising the Moon, was his first book of love poems to Sharon. In his busy life the poet teaches English at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Garfield, New Jersey, and writing courses as an adjunct professor at Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey. His poems, stories, and letters have appeared in a variety --Moira Bails, New Jersey poet and radio host