Received my copy of Navigate, Amelia Earhart's Letters Home from No Tell Books, via Lulu, in the mail today. It's a lovely chapbook, 34 pages, saddle-stiched, with a gorgeous cover painting by Stacy Elaine Dacheux. In this sequence of short lyrical poems Loudon (who is no stranger to all things aeronautical, having worked for many years on Boeing jetliners) virtually inhabits the mind and soul of Amelia Earhart, in the days after her plane crashes at sea, or perhaps washes ashore on a deserted tropical island. These letters home appear in the form of lists, rants, love letters, memories, and diary entries. Pieced together they give us a stunning portrait of Amelia surviving by her wits on the island, perhaps sleeping under the wing of her plane.


"Dear Seamstress Pidge,

I have mended my trousers 117 times
using the needle in my emergency kit
and black thread until black thread
emptied into spool . . ."

pg. 18



"From the missing diary:

Open-cockpit biplane
Canuck
Kinner "The Canary"
Tri-Motor Fokker "Friendship"
Lockheed Vega
Lockheed Electra 10E . . ."

pg 20



"To Miss Visser my one and only piano teacher,

Hell mouth
Pisser
Cunny lip
Waddle hip
Purse face
Cow ass
Pinch eye
Shit shoe
I wished you dead then
I still do.

Sincerely,
Amelia mary Earhart"

pg 25



"Where are you Fred?
. . .
I want to tell you how it felt
falling and knowing
what a bad idea it was
to have decided against parachutes

ha ha"

pg 34.


It's a good read (and I'm not just saying this because RL is my friend!).
Highly recommended.