For the last couple of weeks, I’ve basically shut down my life in order to study for exams. During that time, I hung out with my favorite person
for one or two hours each day (when we were lucky), and I played tennis a couple of times a week to recharge and interact with humans. It got me thinking about how important it is to spend time on the most important things, whatever they are. I mean, making a mark on the world, helping people, in even a small way, is part of what life’s all about. But what we sometimes inappropriately call “wasting” time is vital and often more precious, like when I snuggle up with my person to watch “Better Off Ted,” figure out which characters we’re most like and laugh at what “we” are doing in this episode (I’m a somewhat less ridiculous version of Phil…wow, that’s dorky!), and wonder how such a fabulous show got cancelled. Sharing time with the people who mean the most, doing the things that recharge me for the rest of life – I’ll call this “Better Off Ted” time; why not? – it’s hard to tell whether that’s what keeps me going, whether that’s the purpose of it all, or both, or whether it even matters. Sometimes, I think working extra-hard on other things (like exams) is more than a reward in itself; it’s an investment for extra future “Better Off Ted” time. When I’m working so hard I hardly have time for anything or anyone else, it’s nice to remember what matters the most, and to fully invest in the moments I get with those people, doing those things. This holiday, I’m looking forward to spending my time in the best way: with the people I love most, tripping out on the world – and totally grateful.
And now to one of the best uses of time: poetry!
JoAnn Balingit, Delaware’s Poet Laureate, knocks it out of the park this month with hauntingly beautiful poetry and a vibrant, soothing, world-opening, wave-crashing interview. Ms Balingit is so much with the world and its mysteries and commits her experiences to writing with the grace, strength, and awe of a bird surfing the wind. I am so grateful to be able to share both her stunning poetry and her beautiful, wide-reaching interview with you. I’m better for having read them.
Associate Editor Mari L’Esperance brings us two amazing poets and a great interview. Mari writes:Carley Moore’s poems, on the surface, can appear whimsical and deceptively simple. In truth, like the opening scene of David Lynch’s film Blue Velvet, this surface veils a dark, fierce, and complex understory that packs a punch. Moore writes, “[these poems] are from a newish manuscript-in-progress called Old Lady. In it, I examine ‘the hag’ as both a mythological figure and a cultural object. I mean to unpack, as best I can, the vexed role of the older women in my own family's history, in literature, and in a larger collective imagination. I also, in some of these poems, attempt to come to terms with a family history that is constructed out of rumor, myth, and lies.” In an accompanying interview, Moore talks about her writing life, as well as about being a woman in the process of her own becoming. “I want to inhabit comfortably my own cracked shell. / We are nothing but cracks, the ground says, / Listen for what we have to say.”
Bernd Sauermann’s poems reeled me in by revealing the world through a lens that’s slightly askew, pleasingly irregular, and seductively mysterious. I love how these poems dodge and lean in unexpected ways, philosophically off-kilter and utterly unafraid to be themselves. Nor do these poems sacrifice feeling by being willfully clever or obscure. I look forward to reading more of Sauerrmann’s poems.
Associate Editor J.P. Reese brings us three poets and two engaging interviews. J.P. writes:Pamela Porter kindly consented to an interview with me this month, and her answers are generous, intelligent, interesting, and informative. Porter writes a kind of startling, unique, yet firmly grounded poetry that had me saying "Yes!" aloud as I read through each gem. Hers is poetry of the first order that gets under the skin and won't let go with a grace formed by the poet's observations of nature and human nature. I don't know how anyone could read Porter's work without coming away moved by her depth and charity.
Bill Yarrow's work runs the gamut from the playful "Rattlesnake Pancakes" to the suicide of Russian poet Sergei Esinin. His second hat, as a professor of English, fits him well in our interview, as Yarrow explores the influences behind his work, from Dr. Johnson to Thomas Pynchon to The Twilight Zone. Yarrow's poems cannot be pigeonholed into one style or form, and his breadth of knowledge is evident in the pieces featured here this month.
Lisa Sisler's poems explore the world in different voices. In the first poem, "As the Crows Fly," the speaker looks back on childhood and shows how a child learns to understand the secrets families keep to protect one another from the pitiless truth of a loved one's desertion. The irony present here is in a young child's attempt to protect a father in his denial of reality. "The Blueprint" is startling in its ironic treatment of religion and all the beliefs with which children are instilled about its inherent goodness as, in a teaching moment that breaks through the poem's boundaries, a nun smacks a child's head against a blackboard. All four poems lead readers into situations that are clearly those encountered in everyday life, but they offer such an unusual perspective that we are caught up in their struggles to comprehend and to accept. The world, these poems suggest, is a complex place indeed.
Associate Editor Nicelle Davis brings us another great poet and interview. She writes:When I asked Jaime Warburton, "What is the first and most important lesson a student of poetry should learn?" she replied, "Living people are writing living poetry. Right now." Nothing could better express the ear catching quality of Warbuton's poetry than the word living. Her poems are alive with song and imagery. In her poem, “Evolution, Propagation, and Defense,” she writes, breaths, wondering at the texture of skin. It is in such examinations that love is discovered and life experienced at the moment it is being lived.
As Tom Waits sang, “And it’s time, time, time. And it’s time, time, time. And it’s time, time, time that you love. And it’s time, time, time.” Happy holidays, everyone.