Poets
Lauren Berry: The Lifting Dress
As award-winning poet Lauren Berry takes us through the after-effects of the sexual trauma experienced by her young narrator, the reader is chilled by the depth of the girl’s vulnerability. But then there is another layer which the author weaves in with equally potency: the growing sense that here is a girl who, despite everything, remains the narrator of her own self-identity. Colorful and eccentric and steeped in lush, figurative language, this story, however difficult, is unmistakably her own.
Read MoreA Poet Talks About Fatherhood
It happened quite naturally. I liked to quote lines of poetry for them. Once when we were visiting the Atlantic coast and watching the waves crash and the sea spray spouting up, I quoted a favorite line from Hart Crane’s poem, “The Dance”: “what laughing chains the waters wove and threw.” My children never forgot that. Several years later when looking at another wild body of water, they would remind me of that same line.
Read MoreHal Sirowitz, poet: You Can Thank His Dad for That Dry Wit
“I do think Americans take themselves too seriously. Just turn on the TV and count how many programs are contests – cooking, sports, singing and dancing, finding a house, a spouse. I suggest that once a year the major networks televise a sports game where both sides don’t keep score. Or broadcast a cooking show where the cooks make one big meal instead of competing against themselves to see who can make the better individual meal.”
Read More“Find Yourself by Serving Others:” Interview with Sam Hamill
I think the burden we bear as artists is often a burden of privilege. We’ve “made it” to a place wherein we can search for art or discuss the meaning of being or search our own souls for the sweet sad music our angels make. Understanding how lucky we are to have the opportunity to make art of our speech, for whom shall we speak? The song of the self soon grows stale, while the songs of engagement bind us and poultice our wounds and open our hearts to the world. Chuang Tzu lived in a harsh cruel world and yet had the courage to dream he was a butterfly.
Read MoreWriting and Sacred Spaces: Dawn Thompson, Portland, Oregon
“I have come to believe that the ‘fiction’ which arises from my imagination holds as much ‘truth’ as my lived experiences.”
~Dawn Thompson, poet, Portland, Oregon, USA
Dorianne Laux: “All Poetry is Preparation for Death”
“Poetry allows us access to the quotidian mysteries. It allows us to revere the miracle of our lives as we live them, so that when death comes, we’ll be grateful.”
~Dorianne Laux, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Judith Barrington ~ memoirist, poet, essayist; Portland, Oregon
“When I think of how women are portraying ourselves, I tend to think in terms of memoir, which is my primary focus as a writer now…” — Judith Barrington
Read MorePaulann Petersen, Oregon’s Poet Laureate
“There are achingly empty spaces, spaces waiting for us to fill them with our creativity.”
~Paulann Petersen, Oregon’s Poet Laureate
Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen: Writing Your Understory
Think of a month of the year that resonates deeply with you. (A time of the year when you are particularly attuned to an abundance of strong sensual details.) Write that month down…
Read MoreIt Starts with Touch
“Intention in touch is no small thing. We can all sense each other’s intentions, even through the web, let alone with glances and body language. So of course, the more secure one is about their own intentions, the more effective their touch. I like to think of touch as ‘bearing witness.’ It is not of judgment, but understanding.”
— Debra Benjamin, Reiki massage therapist; Miami Beach, Florida, USA.
“All I Want Is to Be Opened” Interview with Joseph Fasano
“A poem might end up looking terribly mysterious—I hope it does—but if it’s resisted baring itself, it’s failed. Fragmentation and ellipticism may be aesthetic strategies, but resistance isn’t. All I want is to be opened.”
~Joseph Fasano
In Pursuit of the Sublime
Many of the sights and sounds we’re subjected to in our society are harsh and disturbing. Psychologically and spiritually toxic. Scenes of cruelty, vindictiveness, ugliness and pettiness saturate the media and poison the mental atmosphere. I like the fact that I am sending out into the world images, pictures, little visions, that may do a tiny bit to counteract all that and communicate a sense of beauty, gentle humanity, grace, even holiness. It makes me feel like I’m doing something worthwhile in this sad, sad world.
Read More