“You must write every single day of your life… You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads… may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.” ~ Ray Bradbury
“Young Woman Writing” by Pierre Bonnard (1908)
I have always believed writing chooses you, rather than the other way around.
You are either compelled to write, or not.
No sane person would willingly choose the loneliness, rejection, crippling self doubt and relative poverty that are part and parcel of the writing life. The rewards must come from the creative act itself, from having made sense out of chaos if even for a fleeting moment.
Given that you absolutely cannot help yourself — that you must write to feel alive — you simply go about setting down one word after another after another every single day, while battling your inner demons and that pesky inner editor.
I’m just sitting here tickling the ivories, tickled pink that author, poet, fellow blogger and online friend Barbara Etlin has just published her very first book of poetry! Hoo Hoo!
In between tending her tulips, perfecting owl calls and waiting on HRH Echo (genius good-looking-poetry-writing dog), Barb has managed to cook up 33 mostly humorous, tickle-your-fancy poems exploring “the crescendos and diminuendos of life.”
Call Antique Piano & Other Sour Notes a quirky smorgasbord, a recital of finely-tuned off key musings and amusings about everything from “broken hearts to broken appliances.” It’s fitting that she’s chosen a musical theme for this collection, since she loves to play with lyrics by parodying popular songs and referencing favorite artists like Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, and the Beatles.
Barb’s fave Art Deco vase.
Writers, especially, will appreciate the ode to an electric typewriter and the memo to Lewis Carroll from the Seven Maids’ Union. For minimalists, Barb has included four haiku; for mind-benders, a conversation between refrigerator magnets; for pet lovers, two barks and a meow; and if you’re feeling spacier than normal, check out the “Etiquette for Astronauts.” For the first time ever, we get to hear the Moon’s side of things (and it’s a little dark)!
I asked Barb to share some tips about humor writing and self publishing, and I was curious about the antique piano. Of course I also asked for a favorite recipe (yes, it’s chocolate!). And, as a special added treat especially for you animal lovers, we’re serving up a sample poem from the book by Echo himself (it’s a good thing Barb takes good dictation). Ruff!
Hayden: “I love the way objects, images and stories connect and find their way into a poem. An old friend had sent me an outrageous pound cake one Christmas and when I described it as ‘sugar-dusted, lemon-glazed,’ the story of the boy in this poem, told to me years earlier, came straight to mind. Everything came together through that sunny yellow circle with its center missing — dense, empty, bitter, sweet, gestures we make too late, a child’s ability to take in everything at the same moment, at once, and complete. It was all in the cake.”
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I still hold my breath every time I read this powerful, heartbreaking poem, as though I can’t believe what is happening, wishing I could somehow call the boy back to keep him from seeing what he will see.
The escalating urgency and suspense, and the intense crackle of opposites colliding are so masterfully executed detail by detail, phrase by phrase, in just one cascading sentence.
How fine is the line between terror and exhiliration — or are they one and the same?
We are left to ponder which is the greatest tragedy — that a woman committed suicide, that a child was traumatized, or that perhaps a life could have been saved if that cake had been delivered just five minutes earlier.
“The One and the Other” won the 2011 Rattle Poetry Prize, and is included in Hayden’s brand new book, Say Luck (Big Pencil Press, 2013), winner of the 2013 Kenneth & Geraldine Gell Poetry Prize.
I first stumbled upon “The One and the Other” online a couple of months ago while innocently searching for a cake poem, and have been haunted by it ever since. Totally unsuspecting, I could never have imagined, reading those first few words — “child hums . . . grandmother’s sugar-dusted lemon glazed cake” — that this poem would be laced with such a searing kaleidoscope of fragmented anguish.
I’d like to thank Hayden for granting me permission to share her poem and for providing a little backstory. Do pick up a copy of Say Luck; I’ve been slowly savoring and enjoying each and every poem.
♥ Visit the Rattle website to hear Hayden read “The One and the Other.”
SAY LUCK written by Hayden Saunier selected by Laure-Anne Bosselaar published by Big Pencil Press, 2013 Poetry, 94 pp. *Foreword by Ms. Bosselaar
Hayden Saunier is a writer, actress, and teaching artist living in the Philadelphia area. She is the winner of the 2013 Gell Poetry Prize, 2011 Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, and the 2011 Rattle Poetry Prize. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize, is a Bucks County, PA, Poet Laureate, and the 2005 Robert Fraser Poetry Award Winner. Click here to visit her Official Website.
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The lovely, talented and snickerdoodle-loving Keri Collins Lewis is hosting today’s Roundup at Keri Recommends. Check out the full menu of poetic goodies being served up in the blogosphere and enjoy the holiday weekend!
Hello and Welcome to Poetry Friday at Alphabet Soup!
Please help yourself to a cup of tea and an Apple Pumpkin Walnut Muffin (recipe here). The footed teacup will make it easier to amble from blog to blog as you savor all the wonderful poems, reviews, and poetic musings others are sharing today. The muffins are a Fall tradition in our house — no better way to celebrate the season than to bite into apples and pumpkin at the same time. 🙂
I don’t know of many writers whose blog entries read like poetry, but I do know that her words nourish, sustain, and make me want to become a better writer and person. You could not ask for a kinder, more sensitive or astute guide as you navigate the day-to-day challenges of a writer’s life.
Cornelius crushing on Jeannine. Is he taken with her poetry or her cranberry muffins? Probably both.
This lovely collection of finely wrought inspirational essays, organized by the “seasons” of writing a book (Spring: Beginning, Summer: Moving Through the Middle, Fall: Revising, Winter: Finding an End), is a unique, intimate, revealing ‘innerscape’ laden with deep, gentle wisdom — what a privilege to peek into the soul of this writer!
As Jeannine describes the stages and different aspects of writing poetry, fiction, and biography in metaphor-rich prose, she turns your tired perspective on its head, continually challenging your assumptions.
Oh, to revel in the possibilities of language, linger with the hummingbird hovering near the honeysuckle, celebrate the discovery of just the right historical detail or turn of phrase! Then, to inevitably know the yin to the yang — grief at the loss of a dear friend, staring rejection in the face, learning how to accept the vagaries of the publishing industry without losing faith or direction.
Views from a Window Seat champions the steadfast hope whose name is ‘writer.’ It is a gift to all who read, write, love words, and who might be curious about the heart and mind of a poet. Treat yourself to a copy and give it to your friends this holiday season.
Here’s an excerpt from “Slim Books,” where Jeannine discusses balancing her role as a biographer, “who needs to be exhaustive,” with the poet, “who travels lightly.”
Once I get my facts straight, once I’ve described, say, a bird, with the slant of every feather distinct, I shut my eyes and listen for what flies, flutters, or fails. I shake the poems like doormats. Phrases tumble. Some are swept past the margins and stay there. A few find places in other poems. Some spots need a bit more mystery, and I nudge them around corners, away from the bright light, to let shadows do their work.
Please leave your links with Mr. Linky below. Don’t forget to include the title of the poem you’re sharing or book you’re reviewing in parentheses after your name.
“Making pie, I love the hunger and delight of the hands. You don’t have to touch cake, but you have to touch pie.” ~ Kate Lebo
Kate Lebo, the Pie Poet (photo by Christopher Nelson)
Sometimes you just gotta have pie.
That’s why I was positively giddy when I chanced upon Kate Lebo’s prose poem, “Lemon Meringue,” in the Summer 2013 issue of Gastronomica.
Kate’s been on my foodie radar for a couple of years now; I first saw her drool-inducing double crust fruit pies at Cakespy.com, and earlier this year, Susan Rich shared Kate’s “Chocolate Cream Pie” at The Alchemist’s Kitchen.
Seeing “Lemon Meringue” made me want to find out more about this Seattle-based poet who loves shaping dough as much as crimping a good line of verse.
Hayden Saunier is a writer, actress, and teaching artist living in the Philadelphia area. She is the winner of the 2013 Gell Poetry Prize, 2011 Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, and the 2011 Rattle Poetry Prize. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize, is a Bucks County, PA, Poet Laureate, and the 2005 Robert Fraser Poetry Award Winner. 
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