Writing Out Loud: A Guest Post by Cheryl Wilder

My guest today is Cheryl Wilder, author of Anything That Happens, published in March of 2021.  This debut poetry collection tells the story of what happens after a terrible accident that puts her friend in a coma and twenty-year-old Cheryl in jail. 

In this exclusive guest post, Cheryl shares a technique that helps her to write poetry, as well as tips that help her to read her poetry to others with confidence.  This post may boost your own writing and speaking abilities--enjoy! 

 

  

Writing Out Loud: A Guest Post by Cheryl Wilder

 

Writing Out Loud 

as Revision

One piece of advice given to me over the years has been to read my work-in-progress out loud. It’s a revision tool in the writers’ toolbox. At first, I was shy to read out loud to myself.  It’s one thing to construct a poem on paper: decide on stanzas, fret over line breaks, stare at commas. It’s another to hear a poem–my thoughts and emotions–outside my head. Now, reading aloud is integral to my writing process. (I even read my full collection out loud several times before submitting the final draft.) The advice to read out loud during revision is for all poets, whether they write narrative, dramatic, or lyric poems. I primarily write lyric poetry–short, subjective, personal, and song-like. The lyric form helps lighten heavy themes, allows the reader to catch a breath in the white space.  Rhythm adds to the texture of the content, provides another layer of enjoyment.  I want a poem to roll out of the mouth or jar the reader in the right places. To get there, I rely as much on my ear as anything else.  Reading aloud helps me hear what isn’t working rhythmically.  Reading out loud also helps me refine syntax.  As a poet, I rely on images.  Images come first, and then the structure.  I work to blend imagery with syntax.  Saying what I mean in a way that sounds how I want is imperative to the integrity of a poem. But, the poem also needs to make sense. When I read aloud, I walk around my office or, when the house is bustling, the master bathroom. I have paper and pencil in hand and stop to make notes as needed. It requires privacy and quiet. Why do I walk around? It could be that I’m stretching my legs after sitting at the computer.  Maybe it’s more like pacing around the room. But honestly, it’s not a conscious act, so I don’t know.  Once I start reading, I start moving.

as Oration

Practice and preparation are effective ways to become comfortable reading in front of others. But it’s not easy for a lot of people to get started, myself included.  Spending a lot of time alone with my poems felt counter-intuitive to reading them in public to strangers. It felt like sharing my diary.  To help with stage fright, I took two speech classes in college. I practiced at home alone.  When there was a chance to read at an open mic, I took it. I chipped away at my fear over many years.  What’s helped me the most: Reading out loud to revise. Not only does it provide practice, I know the poems backward and forward. Where they once tripped up my tongue and how they taught me to express my heaviest emotions. I’ve learned, with the practice of reading aloud and crying alone in my office, to find the right words. Words that connect me to the poem and, I believe, the poem to readers. When I read in public now, I use emotion to propel my oration–the tears in the rhythm and syntax. No matter how many people are listening, it’s just me and the poem, like it’s always been.

Video link:
Cheryl Wilder reads "Xing" from Anything That Happens

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Since poetry is often read out loud, reading it out loud during the writing process seems like a great idea.  In addition to conveying the intended meaning, how does the work-in-progress sound?  Like music, poetry is an auditory medium, so sound is quite important, especially poetry that's read later to an audience. Many of us dread speaking in front of a group (can I get a witness?), but according to Cheryl ample practice and preparation can help.  

While I read this collection of poems, I felt the poet's pain about the accident acutely.  These heartbreaking, heartfelt poems are poignant and piercing.  They explore many lasting emotions including guilt, suffering, and regret.  These poems tell a difficult story and pose difficult questions. Moving and artistic, Anything That Happens expresses the poet's vulnerability, honesty, and bravery.

 

Many thanks to Cheryl for this guest post, and to Kevin from Press 53 for sending me a copy of the book.  Special thanks to Serena from Poetic Book Tours for inviting me to participate in this tour.  For more reviews of Anything That Happens and other features, please visit the other stops on the tour. 

Thank you for reading! Your comments are welcomed, as always. 

Finding Magic: A Guest Post by Kathy Davis

Please extend a warm welcome to my guest today, poet Kathy Davis, the author of Passiflora, a book of poems published in 2021.  This eclectic debut collection features poems about children, relationships, nature, aging, loss, art, and more, that are unique, intelligent, and even a bit humorous at times.  In the exclusive guest post below, Kathy Davis talks about what led to the creation of some of the poems in the book.  I hope you will find it as inspiring as I did!

Finding Magic:  A Guest Post by Kathy Davis

What do you do when something’s niggling at you? Something you saw or heard that stays in your head for days, weeks or even years as if begging to be dealt with, explored?  For me, I’ve learned the only way it will stop nagging is if I help it find a home in a poem.

Once when I was checking out a book in the small rural library near my home, a woman came in and asked if the library would like a pony. I could tell by the librarian’s face that she, like me, was stunned into imagining what they would do with a pony.  Let it wander the stacks?  Use it to entertain children during story hour?  Turn it out to graze the surrounding lawn?  That momentary flight of fancy was enchanting, but the spell was broken when another woman brought the subject inside.  It was a life-size stuffed toy Shetland pony—a much more manageable donation which found a home in the children’s section. The librarian later shared other remarkable happenings, such as the flock of guinea hens that would occasionally wander over to loudly police the grounds, and the phone calls the front desk received asking them to keep an eye out for a loose cow that might pop by.  She described all of this with sincere delight, the same sense of wonder that stayed with me and turned into the poem “The Shetland.”

Volunteering at my sons’ elementary school, I met a student’s mother who was recovering from chemotherapy treatments for pancreatic cancer.  An artist, she was too weak to paint like she used to but had discovered she could mix her dryer lint with glue and sculpt it into human figures and other forms.  She described how the lint colors varied based on the mix of clothes dried and the various creative possibilities she saw with each shade.  When her neighbors learned about her new passion, they began to collect their own dryer lint and leave it in her mailbox, ensuring she always had a steady supply of material.  I carried her story in my head for years, remembering again and again the resilience of her creative spirit, her community’s support, until a piece of dryer lint sculpture found its way into my poem “Eve: After the Fall.”  

When my husband and I lived in Chicago during the early 80s, Lake Michigan always froze over in late winter, becoming a massive plain of ice and snow.  So, I was shocked when I returned in February a few years ago and saw it as blue and ice-free as during the warmer months.  In fact, the lake had not frozen over for many years—a startling reminder of the damage done by climate change.  Then, on the walk back to where I was staying, I saw a group of teenage boys in the distance playing chicken on the railroad tracks as a train was approaching.  I felt helpless to do anything but watch and hope they’d be OK. The anxiety produced by the change in the lake and the boys’ risky behavior stood out as a sharp contrast with my experience of Chicago as a young newlywed, when I had not yet had much experience with grief and loss and everything good seemed possible.  It made me think about how I had changed over the years and ultimately led to the poem “Freeze.”  

We can’t force inspiration to happen. And if we’re always looking for something big and lofty, supernatural or divine—we may miss the transcendent nature of moments in our day-to-day lives. When something seemingly ordinary keeps niggling at us, I think that’s the universe saying: Look! There’s magic here.

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Photos from Kathy Davis

 

 

Photo notes: The photos of the poet's writing space, where some of the magic of creating poetry occurs, are quite lovely; I'd be inspired to write in this pretty room with the pretty view! The Georgia O'Keeffe art print (on the bright orange wall) depicts clouds, but it reminds the poet of the ice chunks she used to see on Lake Michigan (as mentioned in her guest post). 

Learning about the inspiration of some of the poems in the book, "The Shetland", "Eve: After the Fall",  and "Freeze", added another dimension to this work for me.  All of the poems in Passiflora are lovingly crafted, and capture different moments, moods, and details with beauty and finesse. They tell stories of everyday life in an extraordinary fashion. I didn't read the poems out loud, but I did read some of them, including "The Shetland", more than once.  That's what I do when I really like a poem (unless it's extremely long).  These poems are outstanding, and touched me in various ways.  

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Special thanks to Kathy Davis for this guest post and for graciously sending me a copy of Passiflora, and to Serena from Poetic Book Tours for inviting me to join the tour.  For more reviews of this book and other features, please visit the other stops on the Passiflora tour.  I wanted to do something special for National Poetry Month, and reading this book was the perfect way for me to celebrate. There are still a few more days in April if you're also interested in celebrating by reading, listening to, or writing(!) some poetry, though of course poetry may be enjoyed all year long. 

Thank you very much for reading!  I welcome and appreciate your comments.

Letter to My Daughters Upon the Release of My Grown-up Book: A Guest Post by Elizabeth Kropf

My guest is the author of a new book of poems, What Mothers Withhold: Poems by Elizabeth Kropf, published in January 2021.  I haven't read this book yet, but I've read several reviews of the book, and it's been described as beautiful, honest, and hopeful.  It sounds like my kind of book.  Elizabeth Kropf  has graciously written an exclusive guest post for my blog, a special, sweet letter to her young daughters, infused with joy and love.  Enjoy!

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Letter to my daughters upon the release of my grown-up book
 

By Elizabeth Kropf

My chapbook “what mothers withhold” has just been published from Finishing Line Press. This has presented an interesting paradox as my children are 10 and 5 and the book appropriately includes things that have been withheld from them. For now, neither of them have asked to read it, but some day they might want to. I have written a letter to them for this occasion. The letter refers to chocolate chip cookies, which references one of the poems my oldest daughter has heard.

January 2021

To my delightful, exuberant daughters,

     Someday, you might read my chapbook, or at least have an interest in it beyond chocolate chip cookies and announcing that I am famous while jumping on the couch. You may not understand why there is not more about your adventurous spirits. When that day comes, I hope you do understand how fiercely I love you and how protecting you is my strongest desire.  If, someday, you choose to have children, you will have a deeper understanding of this, as I have a deeper understanding of my parents love for me.

     Someday you may wonder why your dad is not in the book more.  Every poem written, every critique group and workshop was attended while your dad was taking you on all of the adventures you have had. Writing is a way to process hard things, and while I was going through difficult times, your dad was next to me for all of it.

     This book is only the beginning.  I will write more about what each of you have taught me and how each of you will change the world.  I will write about how much I enjoy watching you practice TaeKwonDo and how much I love your confidence.

      What I hope you learn from me publishing a book is that your voice matters, your story matters. Choose who holds your pain and when.  Do not put a deadline on dreams.

Love, Mom

 

                                            
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Special thanks to Serena from Poetic Book Tours for inviting me to participate in this book tour.  Like the poet, I have two daughters (and a son), so I think I this collection of poetry will resonate with me as a mother, and as a daughter.  I look forward to reading it.  Please visit the other stops on this tour for reviews and other related features.  The dazzling photograph above is by Alejandra Alumbaugh Photography.

Thanks for reading! Your comments are welcomed.

Out of No Way

Out of no way is an old African American expression that means to thrive in spite of impossible odds.  This expression fits perfectly as the title for this book by producer, author, and poet Rojé Augustin, Out of No Way: Madam C.J. Walker &  A' Lelia Walker, A Poetic Drama.  Published in 2020, this debut poetry collection uses poetic verse to tell the story of Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919).  Born Sarah Breedlove, the first free-born child of former Louisiana slaves, she achieves great success in spite of a humble and difficult beginning. Sarah was orphaned at 7, married at 14, became a mother at 17, and became a widow at 20.  She went from earning pennies as a laundress and maid to becoming a very wealthy hair care entrepreneur, activist, and philanthropist. 

Personal struggles with hair loss led Sarah to develop a hair care product for herself and other black women, which was the start of her lucrative career in business.  With the help of her daughter, A' Lelia, and third husband, Charles J. Walker, the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company became a very successful business.  Madam C.J. Walker trained thousands of women to become independent sales agents for her beauty products.  Equipped with drive and tremendous resilience, Madam Walker became the first self-made female millionaire in America, and one of the first African American millionaires in America.  It's remarkable that she achieved this feat during one of the most racially violent periods in American history, during the Jim Crow era.  Based on biographies and archival materials, this book tells her story, using dramatic verse.  It's a unique collection of poems in different poetic forms, including narrative and lyrical poems, haiku, and blackout poetry, which depict an extraordinary story of entrepreneurial success, and the extraordinary love between a mother and daughter.

                                         

                        Sarah, Mother       A' Lelia, Daughter                    

 

I have long been interested in biographies and stories of success, stories that illustrate our ability to improve our lot in life. When I read them, I want to learn about the character traits that aid success, and to be inspired. This collection of poems had that effect on me.  Although Out of No Way is serious and delves deeply into themes such as racism and hate, it's also uplifting at times.  It depicts the rags-to-riches story of Madam C.J. Walker through dramatic, varied verse,  presented as an exciting, absorbing story, and features A' Lelia's perspective as well. I relished the illustrations and advertisements of her hair and skin products in the book. As a woman, I'm interested in these products (recently, I've rediscovered henna for the hair, which I first used when I was in high school). I greatly enjoyed reading this book.

Because poetry is especially wonderful to listen to, here are links to some of the poems in Out of No Way, performed by poet Rojé Augustin on YouTube.  I could use many adjectives to describe these poems.  But these beautiful, touching, heart-wrenching poems speak for themselves.

Elegy for my Mother

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyB2_FTY4_4

Why Our Hair is not Straight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bFKpoVSzAE

The Lost Letters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD5DmJr6xE0

Graves & Thrones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS3VIuLhHuU

 

 

AUTHOR BIO:

Rojé Augustin is a native New Yorker who grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Her first novel, The Unraveling of Bebe Jones, on which her drama series pitch BEAU REVE is based, won the 2013 National Indie Excellence Award in African American fiction. She wrote the novel while living in London and Sydney as a stay-at-home-mom.  She established Breaknight Films shortly after her move to Sydney in 2009 to develop and produce projects across a range of formats, including television, web, and audio. Her first Sydney based project was a podcast and visual web series called The Right Space, which explores the relationship between creatives and their workspace.  In 2013 Rojé's script, The Weekly: Women Who Shaped a Nation, was selected for the Australian Writer's Guild Pathways Program.  In 2020 Rojé published a debut poetry collection titled, Out of No Way: Madam C.J.Walker and A' Leila Walker, A Poetic Drama, which tells the story of Madam Walker's phenomenal life. Rojé continues to work as a producer while also writing in her spare time. She is an Australian citizen who currently lives in Sydney with her Aussie husband and two daughters.

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Special thanks to Serena from Poetic Book Tours for inviting me to participate in this tour.  I'd never heard of Madam C.J. Walker before joining this wonderful tour.  Poet Rojé Augustin brought her to life for me. Now, I want to learn as much as I can about Madam Walker's life and legacy.  She made a way out of no way, and then used her wealth and influence to help and empower others.  I'd love to visit Madam Walker's grand home, Villa Lewaro, in Irvington, NY, a National Historic Landmark that was purchased in 2018 by the New Voices Foundation, which helps women of color achieve their entrepreneurial dreams.  This book affected me deeply.  For more reviews of  Out of No Way and other features, please stop by Poetic Book Tours.

 Thank you for reading! Your comments are welcomed, as always.

PR for Poets

As a book blogger, I've participated in many online tours with Poetic Book Tours.  It's been a joy for me to read, think about, and write about poetry.  In the past, I've shied away from reading poetry, as I thought it would be too difficult to decipher.  Fortunately, modern poetry is a lot more accessible! Additionally, I've relished two collections of poetry by Jeannine Hall Gailey, The Robot Scientist's Daughter (2015) and Field Guide to the End of the World (2016), so I jumped at the chance to read this new guidebook, even though I'm not a poet who hopes to publish a book of poems, and then take on the daunting task of marketing it.



Published in 2018, PR for Poets: A Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing by poet Jeannine Hall Gailey is packed with information and tips that will help poets market their work.  Gone are the days of reclusive poets clad in somber clothing, who never socialize and wait passively for their work to be discovered.  In this new age there are numerous ways that poets can reach and connect with readers, and successfully promote their own work.  Although Gailey says that "poetry book promotion is a marathon, not a sprint", there's a wealth of valuable information in this book that will facilitate the process.

This guidebook is well-organized, and the chapter titles in the Table of Contents will help poets find and employ the information they seek quickly.  Discussion about using social media occurs throughout this book, and it even has its own chapter, Chapter 12: Social Media and Blogs.  I enjoyed reading Gailey "take" on social media platforms, and how to use them effectively.

"Participating in some variety of social media will allow you to connect with readers you might not reach in other ways.  It also allows you to connect with readers in other parts of the country and around the world, something that was previously impossible without travel."
~ Jeannine Hall Gailey, PR for Poets

Gailey herself has a charming blog, comprised of personal posts and photos.  Over the past several years, I've definitely noticed more authors on social media sites such as blogs and Facebook (I've become online friends with many), as well as on other platforms.  It almost seems like a necessity or requirement for authors today.  The world of books, including poetry books, has become more social, due to social media. (It feels kind of strange to call authors and others in the book world by their last names in my blog posts, as things are so much less formal now.)  Of course, you don't want to spend too much time online, but Gailey recommends using more than one social media platform to reach potential readers and generate interest in your book(s).  She provides useful information about the various social media outlets available, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads and LibraryThing, Instagram, Tumblr, and websites and blogs.

PR for Poets includes advice from poetry publishers, and from those who work in poetry marketing.  It features a couple of interviews with publishers, as well as a terrific, informative interview with poet and blogger Serena M. Agusto-Cox, the owner of Poetic Book Tours, an online virtual book tour marketing firm for authors of poetry, as well as some fiction and non-fiction.  Agusto-Cox says that "online book tours are less costly and time consuming for the authors--definite benefits for authors who also have full time work--online tours allow them to reach a wider audience, and through tailored packages, they can reach target groups".  She also says that  "poets can reach poetry readers--those who already read poetry--while at the same time, expose new readers to poetry".

One of the main points of the book is that poets should not be too shy about promoting their books, on social media and in other ways.  Gailey tells poets to celebrate the release of their books, in a lighthearted fashion, with readings and parties and swag.  After all the hard work, it's time to play, and share your work with others.  Work hard, play hard!  In other words, after all of the long, difficult, solitary hours of writing and editing, freely enjoy the social aspects of book marketing.  Gailey says to call your book launch a party, because it should be a festive and fun event for all.  The poet offers many other excellent suggestions as well, based on her own experiences, including giving away swag to readers, such as postcards and bookmarks.  It's a pleasure to get nice swag, and I received the postcards pictured below from her, along with her books; they are "keepers".

Chapters in PR for Poets are aptly titled, short and pithy, and full of helpful ideas, insights, and tips garnered over the years by Gailey.  Chapter 32: PR Calendar will help poets organize their calendars in regards to book launches (parties!).  The last chapter of the book, Chapter 33: Go and Do Some PR, provides a handy, concise summary of the ideas in the book, and additional resources are listed at the end of the book.  If I were a poet, I'd definitely follow the ideas in this thoughtful guidebook! 

PR for Poets is a wonderful book filled with a plethora of practical advice.  Having read Gailey's exquisite poetry, I'm not surprised at the amount of care she put into this book. Her attention to detail shows that she genuinely wants to help her readers, and she talks about her own experiences in an honest and appealing way.  This helpful and talented poet generously shares her knowledge and experience to help others promote their work.  PR for Poets is an essential guidebook for poets.  It was a pleasure to read.

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Many thanks to Serena from Poetic Book Tours for inviting me to participate in this tour, and for sending me a complimentary copy of this book.  For more reviews and guest posts, please visit the other stops on Poetic Book Tours' tour for PR for Poets.

I'm also linking this post to Savvy Verse and Wit's PoeTRY Something New 2018.  I learned a great deal about this new-to-me topic, the marketing aspect of poetry, and how poets now need to actively market their work.

As always, thanks for reading!  Your comments are welcomed and appreciated.

How to Love the Empty Air

How will you celebrate?  April is National Poetry Month, a time to explore and experience the world of poetry.  In honor of National Poetry Month, I read a new collection of poetry by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, the poet's seventh, How to Love the Empty Air, published in 2018.

This book is an intimate, autobiographical collection of poems that depict the author's successes in her work and relationships, as well as the great loss that she experiences when her mother--her "narrator"--dies suddenly.  In these poems, we learn about the poet's life, about her writing career and move to Texas, and about her relationships, especially her relationship with her mother.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised by this book, because it's contemporary--it includes email and texts--it's down-to-earth, and also, most importantly, it illustrates the poet's beautiful, close relationship with her mother, who has died. Each of these poems is like a short story (or more accurately, a mini story) packed with creativity, thought, and feeling.  Although Aptowicz is deeply grieving the loss of her mother, she's able to find some comfort, which she shares with her readers, by remembering and honoring her mother in this collection, in a way that's both personal and universal.  The titles of poems, such as for the opening poem, My Mother Does Not Give Advice, and Moving Means that You Have to Touch Everything You Own Once (never thought of it that way!), and the final poem, Sleeping in Late with My Mother (which ends the collection in a funny and positive, remarkable manner), set the stage for the unique humor found in this collection.  Her mother's voice comes through clearly in these poems, sometimes quite literally, "That's not the picture I want you to see/Use the other one/You know that one, from our weekend together?"  (from the poem, Portraits of My Mother, Far Away from Texas).  The poet and her mother share a special sense of humor. These poems are funny, they are touching, and very "relatable".  I don't know how Aptowicz manages to create poems out of emails, texts, and references to emojis, but she does!  On a personal, related note, having lost my own mother in 2011, I cherish the letters and emails I have from her, and reread them when I crave connection to her.  My mother's words, like Aptowicz's mother's words, contain her humor and her support, and so remain helpful, and present. 

If I were a high school English teacher, I'd choose to read and discuss How to Love the Empty Air with my students, because I think my students would then fall in love with poetry.  But many people, of all ages, are reluctant to read poetry. They worry perhaps that they will not understand it, that it'll be written in formal, difficult-to-decipher language, replete with odd metaphors and similes, bygones from another era. These poems are easy to read and yet full of depth and meaning. I really can't say enough about them!  If you're at all intimidated by the idea of poetry, pick up this book. You might change your mind completely.

Many thanks to Serena from Poetic Book Tours for inviting me to participate in this tour, and for providing a complimentary copy of this brilliant book.  To read other reviews of this collection, please visit Poetic Book Tours' tour for How to Love the Empty Air.
 
Thank you very much for reading! Your comments are appreciated.

WTF: Poems

Published in 2017, WTF: Poems is a collection of poetry by award-winning poet Laura Foley.  In 2015, I read and reviewed Joy Street by Foley, which is an eclectic, joyful celebration of life.  This book is quite different.  The subject of this collection is Foley's father, William Thomas Foley, whose initials happen to spell W.T.F., a popular, contemporary acronym.  William T.  Foley was a World War II veteran and prisoner of war (POW) for four years in China and Japan, who returned home in 1945.  This book is dedicated to his memory.

When I say this collection of twenty poems is very engaging, I mean it.  It's a short book, and I read it quickly, in one sitting. Then I read it a second time--not just for good measure, but because it's beneficial to read poems twice (or even three or four times), for better understanding.  I felt as if I were reading an intimate memoir by the author. WTF  focuses on the poet's relationship with her father, who's a doctor.  In the title poem, "WTF!", we learn that the luggage and household towels have his initials on them, and that his four daughters are expected to answer the phone like secretaries, "Dr. Foley's Residence".  In the book, the poet is a child, taking it all in, learning all that she can, and eventually she's an adult, with children of her own.

These poems are autobiographical, and take readers on an emotional journey, complete with conflicting feelings, replete with descriptive and unique language.  At times I struggle to decipher the meaning of poems, but these poems are clear and concise, full of accessible imagery and details, such as in the poem, "Family Photograph", "knee-socks uneven/legs scraped from the last dash/across concrete."  As a child, I was often coming home with a new scrape on my knee. These images, as well as others, resonated with me.

There are several remarkable poems in the book that I could have chosen to highlight in this post. Here is one of my favorites.


His Victory

I'm four, playing cards with Dad,
the reward four dollars if I win,
nothing if I lose--and when I do
it's everything,
even the two-dollar fortune I had gained.
For a moment, before escaping
to the shelter of my room,
I see a glimmer in his eyes
of something I won't identify
until decades later.
~ WTF: Poems,  Laura Foley, p. 16


In a  broader sense, WTF is a collection about the survival of both Foleys.  It expresses a myriad of emotions, with words and thoughts that convey honest, real feelings such as anger, jealousy, joy, compassion, and acceptance.  Brimming with memories, these poems are a personal, truthful, and touching tribute to William T. Foley.  This book would be an exceptional collection for those interested in poetry that focuses on World War II, father-daughter relationships, or just beautiful poems that have been written by a very gifted poet.

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Many thanks to Serena from Poetic Book Tours for inviting me to participate in this tour.  For additional reviews and features, please visit the other stops on Poetic Book Tour's tour for WTF.  Also be sure to "check out" Serena's Poetry Reading Challenge 2017.

Your comments are genuinely appreciated.  Thank you for reading!

For National Poetry Month: Robert Frost

During a Facetime chat yesterday with my daughter, Angela, she passed a statue of Robert Frost on the campus of Dartmouth College.  I decided at that point that I 'd found my subject for National Poetry Month. Because when I think of poetry, I think of Robert Frost.  He was one of the first poets I studied (to some extent) in school.  I asked Angela to send me a better photo than the screen shots I took during our Facetime, and today she texted me this beautiful photo, taken by her boyfriend, Matt (because she was in lab until 8 PM), of the bronze statue of Robert Frost by sculptor George W. Lundeen. Thank you, Angela and Matt!

Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet.  Born in San Francisco, CA, his family moved to Lawrence, MA, after his father died.  He graduated from high school in 1892, and attended Dartmouth for two months (he left college to work to help his family, and later attended Harvard for two years).  Frost felt that his true calling was poetry, and he sold his first poem, "My Butterfly. An Elegy", in 1894.  He married Elinor Miriam White in 1895, in Lawrence, and Frost became a prolific poet, who wrote poetry from his homes in various parts of New England (and later from England). He won four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry, as well as a Congressional Gold Medal in 1960.  Frost was named the poet laureate of Vermont in 1961.

When I think of Robert Frost, the poem that stands out in my mind is "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" (1922).  Isn't his name, Robert Frost, so perfect for a poet writing about the cold, frosty woods?!  He wrote the poem quickly one morning from his home in Shaftsbury, Vermont, after watching a sunrise, having stayed up all night to work on a long poem, "New Hampshire" (which should maybe be underlined, due to its length).  If you've ever been to New England and have walked in the woods, you'll agree that this poem captures the essence of the woods.  The last stanza is etched in my memory from my schooldays.  Perhaps you remember it as well. 


Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
 
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I've added this post to Savvy Verse & Wit's special Mister Linky for National Poetry Month. Thank you, Serena!

Happy National Poetry Month!  As always, your comments are welcomed.

A Conversation with Arisa White

As I read You're the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened, the new collection by poet Arisa White, published in 2016, I felt that I wasn't connecting deeply enough with this work.  Although I noticed and appreciated the bravery and beauty of these poems, many of which have titles from 'a List of terms for gay in different languages' on Wikipedia, I couldn't help but wonder: am I too old, too traditional, or even too straight to really “get” this work?  When I read poetry, I want to savor the beauty of the words and their arrangement, but I also seek to understand the meaning of the poems. This is essential to my enjoyment of poetry.  Fortunately, Arisa White agreed to answer my (somewhat eclectic) interview questions, presented here.  My hope was that a conversation with her would strengthen my understanding of and connection to her work. 

A Conversation with Arisa White

1) Welcome, Arisa, and thank you for being so gracious and patient with me!  As mentioned, I struggled a bit to find connection to your work.  Who do you think is the ideal reader of this collection of poems?

AW: I think someone who can live in the interstices.  Someone who understands and knows grief, a broken heart, who pines for things to be just, who is not afraid of her well, he who goes inward, they who write for the here and sensuous logic.  She who sees and resists the restraints put on the body,he who story tells and finds other ways, they who disobey hegemonic voices and choruses on and on 
and on . . . .

Spoken like a true poet, Arisa!   :)

2) Tell me something important about this collection that I may have missed.

AW: I don’t know what you’ve missed. Makes me think of the bus driving off as you run to it. And do you keep running because it is a bus you need to catch?  I wonder, what made you late?  What were the conditions that made arriving on time, now a missing for you? The funny thing is this collection is exploring that same thing--missing. The way it leaves a certain presence in the body. The absence shapes you. And as it does it’s shaping, you learn to exist with it. You learn a new understanding of your body and its emotional terrain as the relationship matures. In that maturation, things are nurtured--the imagination, for one, and the way you maneuver language, and quiet and silence too, so it better speaks to you, is another. So the language is full with you.  Each poem explores some form of missing and the transformation that occurs.

Arisa, at least I didn't miss the missing theme, mentioned above! Your poems eloquently express longing and loss and love.

3) What gift (or gifts) do you want to give your readers?

AW: Joy.  Nuanced emotional literacy.  Rigor.  Possibility.  Inspiration.  Contemplation.  Provocation.

I'd add Harmony to your list, Arisa.

4)  Do you hope to reveal, or conceal, in You're the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened, which seems to be a love letter?   How autobiographical is this collection? 

AW: It does feel very much like a love letter. A love letter that has been written in private and public places in the body and within the culture at large. A love letter written at different points on the waves of love, at different moments when you encounter a “new” way of comprehending love. A love letter to how love leaves you open and changed. This collection is not autobiographical. It pulls from my personal sphere. Too much is taken from what is around me--gossip, media, family narratives, books, popular culture, music. The I in the collection is an outward I, an I in community, in intimate relationship to the ecologies that form its making. You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened is the house made from tensions of bodies in relationship to their own and other bodies. 

5) What, if anything, did you (or an editor) edit out of this book?

AW: There were six poems removed from the original manuscript. The work had a different tone, and at times reminded me of pieces that could have gone in my debut collection Hurrah’s Nest—those poems were more autobiographical. Some of the edited-out poems were an exercise in language, and after revising them, sometimes radically, they didn’t make sense to me.  I couldn’t place their sense within in the collection. With the removal of those poems, I was better able to see the overall creative enterprise of the work, and as result I then included the suite of poems “Effluvium”; “Effluvium” brings attention to AIDS and its impact on black women, but expands itself to address violence against women.

 
6) If you could set one of the poems in this book to music, and turn it into a song, which poem would it be, and why?   

AW: Not music, and that may be because there is already “music” present in the work—its prosody, assonance, slant rhyme, etc.  However, I do see “Lady in the House: Kitchen Speeches” as short film. That persona is so irreverent and radically self-possessed that to see her embodied would be great. The setting of the kitchen is very feminine, and so knowledge has been exchanged at kitchen tables, near the stove, washing dishes.  It is a powerful creative space, a space where women cook for revolutions, commune and congregate, take time for themselves, make themselves beautiful, prepare their medicines, concoct poison and bombs.

Arisa, it's interesting that you singled out this poem and mentioned that you can see it as a short film.  It's one of my favorites in your book.  I agree that the setting of the kitchen, sometimes called the heart of the home, is both feminine and powerful (I like that coupling). To my surprise, I've grown to love my own kitchen over the years; it has become a creative and comfortable space for me. There are many profound lines in "Lady in the House: Kitchen Speeches", such as:

"I've been searching for one pure answer, one complete
thing to feed loss.  Something grown for your mouths,
a recipe my pots don't refuse."

7) How does the writing process affect you, emotionally and/or spiritually?  Why did you choose poetry over prose?

AW: Writing is an integrative act.  Different parts come together to make something, and from that making something becomes known.  Something is realized, and what that means for me is that I’ve freed myself.  In the ways we are socially constructed and therefore disempowered, I get my power back, bit by bit, trauma by trauma, generation by generation, and so I know myself more by being engaged in the creative act that socially created me.  I’m more present in my body, even when I’m told to be fearful because I’m black, woman, queer, etc.  I can write myself right as an inhabitant of this earth.  My “I” has broader (in)sight.  And poetry aligns more closely with how I see/perceive the world.

Arisa, your statement, "I can write myself right as an inhabitant of this earth", is excellent.  The act of writing, to a writer, is, of course, extremely valuable.  As far as poetry goes, you seem to be a natural poet. 

After thinking about your answers, I realized that I needed to read your poems with more freedom, meaning that although your content is meaningful, I shouldn't seek or expect a complete, literal understanding.  I was reminded (once again!) that my approach to reading poetry should be different than my approach to reading prose. This  conversation did help me to connect more closely with your work.  Thank you very much for this interview, Arisa! 
 

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Thanks as well to Serena from Poetic Book Tours for arranging this tour and for providing a print copy of this book.  For more reviews and features, please visit the other stops on the tour for You're the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened.  I've linked this review to Serena's 2016 Poetry Challenge.

Thanks for reading!  As always, your comments are welcomed. 

Field Guide to the End of the World

Typically, field guides are books that help interested readers identify wildlife such as plants or animals, or natural objects, such as minerals, designed to be brought into the "field" or area where the  objects exist.  These books often feature detailed illustrations or photographs. According to Wikipedia, the first popular field guide to plants may have been  How to Know the Wildflowers by "Mrs. William Starr Dana" (Frances Theodora Parsons), published in 1893.  I knew I had a few classic field guides in my shelves, so I looked around my home to gather them.  Quickly, I found a small, eclectic bunch, mostly gifts from my mother (who nurtured the nature lover in me and my young family): A Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds (autographed by Roger Tory Peterson),  A Peterson Field Guide to Pacific State Wildflowers, The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Weather, and The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles & Amphibians.  And now there's a new kid on the block.  The newest addition to my collection is a field guide--to the end of the world.

"This is it, the apocalypse . . ."
~ Radioactive, Imagine Dragons

Published in 2016, Field Guide to the End of the World by Jeannine Hall Gailey is a collection of poems that won the 2015 Moon City Press Award.  This book is divided into five sections: Disaster Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Hard Science, A Primer for Your Personal Genome Project, and End Times Eschatology.  In the book, we are introduced to Teen Girl Vampires, Zombie Stripper Clones, and Alien Autopsies.  The tone of this collection is often humorous.  Martha Stewart's Guide to Apocalypse Living, with its "guide to storing munitions in attractive wicker boxes: page 52", has already been mentioned specifically as a very funny poem in other reviews of this book, and I agree.  This collection is filled with original, evocative images that underscore the importance of humor, even during the most troubling, uncertain, apocalyptic times.

There's notable, creative variety in the format of these poems.  Some are presented traditionally, while others, like Post-Apocalypse Postcard from the Viceroy Hotel, Santa Monica, and Post-Apocalypse Postcard from an American Girl ("determined for once to do more than survive"), resemble flash fiction; Shorting Out has spaces to illustrate the "shorts", and there's even a poem written in epistolary form, Letter to John Cusack, Piloting a Plane in an Apocalypse Movie.

Poetry, like music, must be felt to be understood.  You experience poetry by the actual reading of it, or by hearing someone else read it aloud.  Here is a sample from the book, a single, stunning poem, which the poet has given me permission to share. 


Every Human is a Black Box

We all carry our own road map to disaster, the faint voice recordings

that veer from mundane to hysterical in that last moment.
There's no turnkey solution to us; one person's milk
is another's poison; my mother swears green tea gives her hives.

My husband looks up from the field with scratchy throat and red eyes,
while I frolic in amid the goldenrod; at night I toss and wheeze
in the dust of my pillow while he snores dreamlessly.

Our lives have stood, like loaded guns -- for one, heart attack
by sauce alfredo, for another, 101 years of béarnaise and tobacco
troubled by nothing more than mild glaucoma.  Some of us
can disregard the warnings; others must cling tightly to directions.

When you slide into the grave, remember your body is a document,
a reminder, a memorial to distant waters, the siren call of cells
to sleep. Turn off. Shut down.  Mayday, May Day.

Another poem in the book that impressed me greatly is Yearbook: Not Pictured.  This poem is so clever and interesting!   The poet paints pictures of various moments in school "not pictured" in the yearbook, things that were personally meaningful and memorable (such as, "sneaking out to lie in the sun under that pink dogwood tree"),  and states that "the most important lessons are not the ones we were graded for".  How true!  Like all poets, she feels things very deeply, and remembers things well, although of course, memory is selective (relatedly, a young man signed my own high school yearbook with a line that I haven't forgotten, "the end is near").  In this poem, she presents a believable set of details from her time in school that casts us back to our own school days.

These apocalypse poems are poignant, but there are welcome rays of light--"let's just say it was all magical"--because "the poet clings, stubborn, to romance".  As I read this book, I marveled over many things, many times.  Jeannine Hall Gailey's work is full of thought, and fully brilliant. Although the book's subject is serious, this collection is also playful, heartfelt, and hopeful.  It is a celebration of life.  As you can tell, I'm a big fan of Jeannine Hall Gailey's work.  I've also read The Robot Scientist's Daughter, sci-fi poems published in 2015.  I'm eager to read She Returns to the Floating World, another collection of her poems, published by Kitsune Books in 2011.  In college, I read The Floating World in Japanese Fiction (sometimes it comes in handy to have been a Lit. major), and am especially interested in Japanese material now that I have been to Japan(!).  She Returns to the Floating World focuses on feminine transformations in the personae of characters from Japanese folk tales, anime, and manga.  It sounds quite intriguing to me!

Many thanks to Serena from Poetic Book Tours for organizing this tour, and also to Jeannine for graciously mailing me a print copy of her book because I wanted to read it in the traditional way.  For more reviews, please visit the other stops on the tour for Field Guide to the End of the World. I've linked my review to Serena's 2016 Poetry Challenge.

Thanks for reading what I've written!  It's your turn now.  Comments are welcomed.