Clemens Carl Schoenebeck has had poems published in the Aurorean, Caribbean Writer, Ibbetson Street Press, Midwest Poetry Review, Small Brushes/Adept Press and other publications. Three of his poems have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize. He and his daughter Kristen were named featured poets of Aurorean’s December issue in 2000. (cont.)
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His short stories have won various prizes in Writer’s World, and Marblehead Festival of Arts. In 2012, he won the poetry and fiction categories. His winning poem was selected for The Marcia Doehner Award, and his short story was awarded the first Georgette Beck Award. His memoir, Dancing with Fireflies, is a story of his family living through the darkness and light of his mother’s schizophrenia, and how poetry brought hope and healing. Schoenebeck lives on the North Shore of Boston with his wife, Bonnie. His daughter’s family lives nearby.
Claire Keyes, Professor Emerita of English, Salem State University, and author of What Diamonds Can Do, writes:
Think of Clem Schoenebeck as the music man, his poems inviting us to see possibilities of joy in the everyday, be it garden flowers or the Brahms Requiem, a brilliant sunset or the sterling qualities of a friend. Better yet, be his friend so he can write a poem about you and say such things as he is “familiar with his own clouds,” thus “he seeks available light.” Where the Time Went is actually the Collected Poems of Clem Schoenebeck. There is abundance here enough for three or four ordinary books of poems. Clem gives us a turtle that “hauls his own darkness” and a sunset in which “the outgoing tide” is “a rippling wash of wine.” He describes “The Care of Hardwood Floors” in such loving detail you want to drop to your knees and get to it! To read these poems is to feel a sense of expansion: there’s so much to life. Songs to sing, children to nurture, family and friends to embrace, the natural world in all its manifestations. Clem Schoenebeck’s poems sound their music to all of it.
Dennis Must, author of several story collections and novels including the forthcoming Brother Carnival writes:
“The poet is the priest of the invisible.” Wallace Stevens
Reading the poems in Where the Time Went, I can think of no greater tribute than for Clemens Carl Schoenebeck to be called a “priest of the invisible.” Witness “Alles in Ordnug,” where sons are reassuring their father as he takes his final breaths that “everything is fine…”
His good night was hushed in sleep
of the pale hours, when the air is still
And the darkness knows everything.
This tercet’s summation, “And the darkness knows everything,” is the poet’s ineluctable refrain of a sublime liturgy.
I am especially drawn to the “FAMILY” selection, exemplified by the starkly memorable “Vespers” in which the poet, as a boy, recalls accompanying his father to the state hospital for the mentally ill “to visit my mother in her Purgatorial Home”…
I remember
as the early winter sun diminished,
a murmuring chorus of unrest replenished
the dark energy of my mother’s residence.
Invisible soloists sing a song of sadness.
The undirected choir hums the music of madness.
These lines are sung by the poet who understands that only the passage of time instructs the catechism of one’s heart.
There are poems in Where the Time Went that will linger in your consciousness long after being read…and some will never leave.
Rating
There’s nothing better than a great fiction read that gets you so caught up in the mystery you forget the day you are living in! As a True crime writer myself, it’s always most impressive to see a mystery fiction writer get the details done correctly! Don’t miss this book! Alan R. Warren Best-Selling True Crime Author House of Mystery Radio Show on NBC
Langdon owns a mystery book store, but the pandemic is in full swing and the Governor has issued mandates and lockdowns making Langdon a homebody working around the house and getting closer to his wife. Besides, his PI business has also shut down since people are staying in their own homes. But then everything is opened again, but there are still mandates for masks from the governor. As Langdon’s book store opens, so does his PI business. He first gets a husband who is certain his wife was kidnapped and wants Langdon to find her. But there was something that just didn’t sit right with Langdon even though he agreed to check the case out. Maybe she just ran away! Then there is the woman who comes to him to investigate and find proof that her former boss (who fired her) not only sexually harassed her but he did it to other women. And to top it all of, a 4 year old boy is kidnapped and and the group who kidnapped him said they would kill the boy if the governor didn’t lift the mask mandate. Hit with these three cases at once is a burden to try and solve but our hero, Langdon, his wife and his friends go about helping him solve the 3 very twisted cases. Can they even be related? Will Langdon and crew be able to solve these mysteries? Will they be able to save the little 4 year old in time? There is a little too much when we get to read Langdon’s relationship with his wife, it sort of takes away from the main story line. There is also a political slant to the story. But the author writes well and everything flowed. I received an ARC of this book but the opinions stated here are strictly my own.
The question of masking has been a problem since the first wave of the Pandemic has eased. But one man in Maine has threatened to kill a 4 year old boy he has abducted if masking requirements are not eased. Then there’s the problem of a missing wife. Was she also kidnapped? And the woman who claims sexual harassment from a shady employer. So many problems and so little time to resolve them all. An enjoyable book and wonderful characters. I received an ARC for free and this is my honest review. Highly Recommended.
I found the book to be a bit choppy, jumping rapidly between characters. I did not feel it necessary to have the main character constantly having sex with his wife. Did not add to the story at all. I also felt the book was politically one-sided. People that believe in the vaccine and masking are the good guys and those that don’t are the bad guys. I don’t believe either group is bad. Everyone has the right to choose and should not be forced or demonized. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
The novel occurs in Brunswick, Maine at the height of the Covid 19 pandemic (The Angst) when private investigators, Goff Langdon and his wife, are hired to find a kidnapped four-year-old boy. The kidnapper sends a video to a TV station and threatens to kill the boy by midnight on Halloween if the governor of Maine doesn’t lift restrictions on businesses and masking. Langdon has eight days to solve the mystery. This book has a great list of characters, and the plot is well developed up to the surprising and thrilling ending.
A fun mystery but not compelling. A good one to read when you know you cant finish in one sitting. Good characters to love and love to hate. A few twists to keep you on your toes. Worth the read. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
