Review/Reader Reaction of ‘A Field of Colors’ by Charles Lennox

This is a review/reader reaction of ‘A Field of Colors’ by Charles Lennox published by ML Press.

A postcard type envelope arrived in the mail. I had spent the day sleeping as my hours tend to be late night. I think I dreamt of receiving an acceptance letter in the mail from some publication called Chelsea based in… yeah, Chelsea. I also remember going to this mailbox in a swamp meet, surrounded by people. Anyway, when I woke up, I went to the kitchen to make some food. The turkey meat in the fridge wasn’t defrosted, so I put it in the sink to ease the transition. I went to the counter and found that postcard type envelope. It was for me. But I had no clue who sent it. Wasn’t sure what was up. It was either the fanciest collection bill ever, or something else I didn’t want to open. Turns out, in the best way possible, I was utterly wrong.

So, it turned out to be a small blue booklet with MLP stamped on the cover, variously. I immediately thought oh how cool. I felt like a giant. And, for some reason, I wanted to eat it. Likely due to my hunger.

Now, on to the actual reading. These MLP booklets are easy to hold. You’d think something this size would cause issues with holding it and reading it and the like. It does not. In fact its increased mobility is much like why the small soft cover mini-moleskines are awesome. With MLP, I can slide it into the mini-moleskines and have inspiration and the recorder of inspiration in one place. Dope.

I kickback on the floor and start reading. Its roughly 10am. I don’t finish reading until maybe 1:30 2 o’clock. The booklet is 8 pages. The reading wasn’t difficult, its just that I kept reading, stopping, rereading, looking at the television but not really watching it — thinking about what I had just read.

Let me tell you, ‘A Field of Colors’ frightens me if this is fiction. It reads so well, so precise (and yet not directly realistic as if you were watching a movie on paper), so ‘in-the-head’ of the main character, you have to think it real. The nuances are on point.

“I tell my girls KEEP WATCH FOR CUTTING EDGES & CORNERS. We are at my field, a field of blank white paper. My youngest wants to color but I have no crayons for her. My eldest calls everyone together & teaches origami. She says THIS IS HOW YOU FOLD A ROSE. NO, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.” — from ‘A Field of Colors’

The story doesn’t break my heart until I reread. At first its bittersweet, but when I realize the full extent of the main character’s sadness, alienation, frustration, and want for what keeps slipping away… I wanted to cry (cheesy, but true) and hope that this was a work of fiction. Because to transcribe life through such a poetic mode… geeze, it’s inspiring.

Now, due to my need to understand the universe, and to apply meaning to (nearly) all things, I interpreted what the fields could be. I don’t think the field is always the field of plants and flowers where he takes his girls so he can spend time with them. I think sure, this field is where he goes to garden to get away from the world, and his girls ARE his world, so he tries to include them in his field, but I think the fields represent wherever he is. Meaning, work is a field. Making origami with his girls is a field. All these different fields. All these different colors of life (to an extent).

Then again, I think the field could also simply be that, a field. A central field he always comes back to that never leaves, with different types of plants (colors). This thing he loves and tends to, tenderly. And, like I said, he refers to his girls and his field as both are things he wants to care for. And when he references the field when he is away from the field, what he is attempting to do is bring something which is heavenly, to something that wants to be heavenly, but things seem to be crumbling around him.

But that is what I think when I think about it. When I read it, I am within the story’s world. All this other stuff comes after.

Word up to J.A. Tyler for sending something free quickly. Being extremely poor and jobless, free things are a blessing. I still haven’t got my free thing from Brandi Wells. This is okay.

I also got to preview ‘We take me apart’ by Molly Gaudry. This is dope.

ML Press has made a fan…