Ye Olde Tavern Life

Poetic Praline Martinis

(serves 4)

Brown Sugar Rim

Equal parts Frangelico and amaretto, combined

brown sugar

1 cup Frangelico

1 cup Amaretto

3 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons butter

Dip edges of 4 glasses in the liqueurs and rim them with brown sugar.

Combine the Frangelico, Amaretto, brown sugar and butter in saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the butter has belted and the sugar has dissolved. Continue heating until the mixture is warm but not hot. Remove from heat, pour into rimmed martini glasses.

JoAnn Balingit is Delaware's 16^th Poet Laureate, appointed by Governor Ruth Ann Minner in May 2008. A resident of Delaware since 1990, JoAnn was born in Columbus, Ohio and grew up in Lakeland, Florida. She has travelled widely, living abroad for several years in Morocco and Portugal. She holds masters degrees in American Literature and Library and Information Science. In summer 2008, she earned a Doctorate of Education at the University of Delaware.

JoAnn has taught poetry for many organizations and in a variety of settings. At the Wellness Community of Delaware, she initiated an ongoing weekly poetry workshop for cancer patients and their families. JoAnn sees poetry as a facilitator of conversation and community, a way for individuals to navigate the wonders and challenges of being alive. With attention to craft, she believes, poetic language creates new understandings. JoAnn encourages educators, parents, and poets to collaborate in the development of "Poetry in the Schools" programming, a program in which guest poets teach the art of poetry to young people.

JoAnn's poems have recently appeared in the journals Smartish Pace and Salt Hill, and in the anthologies DIAGRAM.2 (Del Sol Press, 2006) and Best New Poets 2007 (Meridian/Samovar). She was a recipient of a Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship in 1995 and was nominated for a 2004 Pushcart Prize for her poem "Your Heart and How it Works." Her essay, "Some Boy Somewhere," was awarded the 2008 Dr. Norman H. Runge Award.

excerpt from www.artsdel.org

Never-Never Land

by JoAnn Balingit

after Malay proverbs

where cats have horns

where turtles climb trees

where green fish snap at

sleeping birds on the banks

where east lies west of tidal pools

where midnight crawls out of your hand

where rocks roll down

but pebbles roll up

in other words,

where the rich fall down

and the poor rise up

like dough in earthenware

and spread, like butter on satin…

where crumbs brush away

and the smell of fine clothing

graces an open fire

"Never-Never Land" was originally published in Can We Have Our Ball Back?