Drifting

Marco Fraticelli

In the 1970s, Marco Fraticelli found a cardboard box in an abandoned log cabin in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. The box contained letters, magazines, and photographs and negatives from the turn of the last century. It also contained seven diaries – all dating from the years 1905 to 1916. Excerpts from these found diaries of Celesta Taylor (1860 – 1937) are matched with Fraticelli’s haiku as he imagined that she might have written them. This book captures the history of a bygone era through domestic details around such topics as child-rearing, baking bread, making jam, and looking after chickens. Although, it is primarily a poignant story of unrequited love.

Fraticelli’s sister Rina managed to track down and contact Celesta’s family in the 1990s. She created a short film dramatizing Celesta’s life (Wild Zone Films: Celesta Found documentary DVD, 44 minutes). Dancer Peggy Baker portrays Celesta Taylor in dramatic recreations based on the journals.

Drifting is currently in its third printing.

“Overall, Marco Fraticelli’s pairing of his high-quality haiku and Celesta Taylor’s diary entries is both sensitive and successful. Highly recommended.” — Roberta Beary. Her full review in Modern Haiku is available here.

The book was launched at the Haiku Canada Weekend (May 2014). A video (45 minutes) of the presentation by Marco, accompanied by a performance with Terry Ann Carter as Celesta, is available at this link. With thanks to Liana Voia for her kindness in recording this event.

catkin press | 2013 | 5 x 7 inches | 92pages | 978-0-9880784-4-4

Copies available from the author, please contact Marco here for further information about the book, and the DVD (Celesta Found).