Title Details

Lucinda J. Clark is the founder of P.R.A. Publishing and the Poetry Matters Project. She has published fiction and poetry by authors from the four corners of the globe. Her work with emerging voices enters its eighteenth year. She is a contributor and publisher of the View from the Middle of the Road series.
Clark is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Dillard and Tulane Universities in New Orleans. She resides in Martinez, Georgia, with her husband Robert, who is a physician. They have two adult children, Jeska and Xavier, judges for the Poetry Matters annual literary prize.


R. Xavier Clark was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Augusta, Georgia, and is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a degree in Consumer Economics. He started Modern Gutenberg, an author marketing service in 2017. He has contributed to several editions of the View From the Middle of the Road series.
Clark currently resides in Augusta, Georgia, where he is a mortgage loan officer by day. Black People Don’t Tango is his first published short story.

Silvana Marconi is a English as Second Language instructor. As a domestic abuse survivor, she has become an advocate for women’s rights. Her first book—Sobrevivi, I Survived—was published in 2018. She is working on a second novel for U.S. audiences. Marconi currently resides in Montevideo, Uruguay, with her husband and two teenage children.

Sobrevivi is in Spanish
View From the Middle of the Road is in English

View from the Middle of the Road by Lucinda Clark, R. Xavier Clark and Silvana Marconi
Reviewed by Realistic Poetry International

View from the Middle of the Road is a brief but meaningful collaboration between
writers and poets Lucinda Clark, R. Xavier Clark and Silvana Marconi. View, I found to
be a commentary on many facets we must appreciate in life, but is not unaware of the
bitter struggles we may face, either. Whether they make us feel ambitious or helpless
when we meet them eye to eye is a matter of both chance and choice. The poems and
stories on the surface are gentle, though they also carry wounds without shame or fear.
The trio’s writing is all-too-relevant, knowing these days there seems to be another
heavy turmoil always on the horizon that didn’t have to become. When it seems
impossible to fight it with action, there are always words.
“[...]Cause the soul of a poet
Never leaves this earth as long as her,
Her words are down on paper
And she shares them.”
-from “To Rock the Mic Again”
The three writers’ chapbook is a blend of the most complex emotions. Admiration,
humility, and respect are not so easy to convey. On the dangerous end, neither are the
miseries brought by greed, intolerance and violence.
The Clarks and Marconi are very clear that if it takes an act of evil to achieve something,
it definitely is not a goal worth achieving. It’s a virus and will only end badly for both
sides. Understanding and escaping its palm are both antidotes, but it takes a great deal
of bravery to do either.
“They say that when someone has descended and returned from Hell, they are
committed to fulfilling some kind of mission. My mission is to tell about my stay in that
infernal place.”
-from “I Survived”
View from the Middle of the Road is a varied collection. I’ll admit it’s a bit short, but it
evokes a lasting impression and never lets its anxieties get the better of it, choosing
instead to be optimistic and appreciative always. A wise choice indeed.