Joie de Vivre and Blackened Redfish
There's a new literary journal in town: Joie de Vivre (the Joy of Living). It's a South Louisiana thing, and I'm excited that it's here. I am also grateful to have had a poem published in the journal in April. It's titled Blackened Redfish and you can read it here: Blackened Redfish — Joie de Vivre (jdvjournal.com)
Check our Joie de Vivre and follow them on Facebook , Instagram and Twitter. Good things are happening and more is on the way.
From their website...
Joie de Vivre is a quarterly print journal of Catholic art, culture, history, and letters for South Louisiana. We provide a space for artists, poets, pastors, historians, theologians, and story-tellers to reflect upon the Catholic faith, the arts, and their intersection with our native culture. Joie de Vivre is a publication of The St. Louis IX Art Society.
Why Joie de Vivre?
Joie de Vivre is French for the “joy of living.” As South Louisiana Catholics, this phrase captures well our cultural experience and history, even in the face of great suffering and trial. Despite the harsh realities which our ancestors experienced in exile, immigration, and slavery and which we experience today due to natural disasters, economic hardship, and moral and environmental degradation, we have continued to persevere, together, as a humble, hopeful, and joyful pilgrim Church in search of the face of God in both the Eucharist and one another.
This journal is a celebration of all that is good, true, and beautiful in our experience of life as Catholics in South Louisiana with a particular focus on the realms of art, culture, history, and letters. We hope that South Louisiana Catholics will simultaneously recover not only a deeper appreciation of the breadth and depth of our Catholic faith but also our unique identity and cultural heritage as South Louisianans, both of which go hand-in-hand.
While many in our world today consider art, beauty, and religion to be supplemental add-ons to a normal human life, Joie de Vivre believes otherwise. There is nothing more fundamental about the human experience than the desire for God, the desire for truth, goodness, and beauty, and the attempt to creatively express and better live in accordance with it. Apart from these authentically human goods, human life withers, but wholly immersed in the great goods of natural experience and Christian revelation, well that’s le joie de vivre.
The full text of the poem is below:
Blackened Redfish
A thick-sliced cut of redfish glistens white,
Is quickly coated, seasoned red, in spice:
Paprika, cayenne, garlic, onion, salt,
Oregano and thyme. The dark cast-iron,
Already over-heated, splatters hot
As butter hits its surface, sizzles, browns
Instantly. Smoke assaults the eyes and blinds,
Casting doubt on heat and time. Too much?
And yet another wink and the filet,
Encrusted black, is placed atop a plate,
Then pan-sauce drizzled, and it’s promptly served.
That blackened crust will yield the choicest meat.
