I write about gardening a lot, but I can just hardly help it as I watch new plants come up and bloom all spring and summer. One thing I love about my garden (and there are many) is that there are constant surprises. Sometimes I plant bulbs and scatter seeds in the fall and forget about them until they bloom the next spring. This year, we have mystery flowers growing under the bird feeder because our birds toss random seeds (sub-par for the discerning bird’s palate) to the ground. I suspect we’ll have sunflowers, and we’ve already gotten loads of lace-fingered, thick-stalked plants with cones of purple flowers. I get a kind of quiet but carbonated joy watching my surprise-plants bloom.
I feel the same way publishing this column. When I discover a wonderful poet, whether it’s a poet in their prime or with great potential, I feel the same joy when I get to accept the work and then share it with all of you. It’s like I’ve found something wonderful in a book, put my finger on it, then showed someone special – except, with the column, I can show tons of people all at once, just as quietly. And just as carbonatedly. We have a bunch of those poets for you this month.
We start with Mia Avramut, a poet and brain researcher. Could that combination be any more perfect? Her poetry and interview reflect these copacetic pursuits. Mia’s poetry is full of rich metaphors and delectable language. These poems are rich in meaning – I’m still in awe at how Avramut gave meaning to symbols that are both silent and screaming. And, in her interview, Mia shares fascinating information, for instance: studies show that bilingualism can protect against Alzheimer’s disease. Language is powerful, and Mia has tapped into that power in more than one way.
J.P. Reese brings us two wonderful poets this month, with a knock-out interview. J.P. writes: What can a poet do with fourteen words and an ampersand? If the poet is Chloé Veylit, she can tell a story that is so universal we can all understand it and sympathize with the speaker's sad response to an impending ending. I can't explain why this tiny poem works. It just does.
Diana Pinckney's poems resonate with a universal wisdom only a seasoned poet can offer to her readers. Each one of Pinckney's poems in this issue offers a unique vision regarding life and the living of it. Our interview ranges from a description of her poetic choices in two of the poems offered here, to the benefits of living and writing in one of the most supportive writing communities in the US. I am pleased to bring Pinckney's superior work to our Connotation Press audience this month. Enjoy!
Mari L’Esperance brings us two wonderful poets this month, also with a stellar interview. Mari writes: As the dust settles behind another National Poetry Month, I’m very pleased to bring our readers five poems by Jeanne E. Clark, poet and teacher extraordinaire and all-around estimable human. These quiet, thoughtful poems are like small India-ink “studies” that hold opposites: they are grounded in image and feeling, yet also possess a transient, remote quality that’s pleasing to me. In an accompanying interview we talk about her writing process, creative inspiration, the significance of place, teaching outside of the academy, and Clark’s volunteer work with border collies. I was deeply moved by Clark’s words, and think you will be, too. “When the music is dear, hold fast to the words—that screen door flying open.”
In Katharine Coles’ poems, I like seeing the workings of her mind—deliberate, probing, and laser-sharp—reflected in the skillful crafting of her lines. I also admire how she combines colloquial language with serious philosophical investigation and still hits her mark; the resulting effect works to lend levity while steering the poems clear of a moralizing stance, and without sacrificing any of their wallop. I’m pleased to share Coles’s work with our readers this month. “The world turns / And turns again, and then the world decides.”
Romanian poet George Vulturescu joins the column with three poems translated by Olimpia Iacob and Adam J. Sorkin. These poems create their own mythology, and we readers find ourselves suddenly transported inside it. The poetry and its mythology are aweing and humbling – and also vivid and powerful. This is a world where everything is more than what it is.
Nicelle Davis brings us two poets this month, as well. One of these is Connotation Press’s own shiny-new staff member, Brittany Connolly! Nicelle conducts two more of her great interviews with these two poets. Nicelle writes: Vanessa Blakeslee is a poet who finds inspiration in dualities. In her poems beauty is located in the dark horrors of history and humanity. Her poems are the candle in the dark rooms of the human soul; it is in contradictions that Blakeslee crafts a convincing argument for the existence of the soul.
Before becoming part of the Connotation Press Family, I was lucky to read Brittany Connolly's emotionally riveting and innovative lines. I think that Brittany puts it best in her interview when she says, "Find a form that is original to you; write from your heart, your soul, your stomach, your big toe, hell, whatever part calls out to you." Brittany is an engaged poet and person; the world is a better place because of this.
We’ve got a huge, wonderful column for you this month, folks, so I’ll let you get to it. Happy reading!