I was asked to write a guest post about writing over at the Pen & Muse.
I had fun writing this one. Here it is!
Interview with a Poet: mark Stratton
mark Stratton is an American poet and writer living in Columbia, MO with his wife and three cats. His poems have appeared in The River Paper, The American Zig-Zag Volume One (and forthcoming in Volume Two), MediaVirus Magazine and Four and Twenty.
My first question for mark was one that I didn’t even think of asking (because I hadn’t noticed) until I reread his first collection Tender Mercies. What’s with the lowercase m in his given name, ‘mark,’ and Uppercase S in his family name?
“I firmly believe that the Work is far more important than I am. However, I do not wish to show any disrespect to my family as they are quite important. Not only to me, but in their own right and accomplishments. So, I honor them and leave my given name lower case.”
mark began his writing journey as a self-proclaimed “angsty” teenager, but argues that back then, he “had nothing to say that hadn’t been said before.” He got more serious about writing in 2008, and continues to write today because it has become habitual and “more importantly,” explains mark, “it’s become needful for me to do so.”
James Brush, author of the blog ‘Coyote Mercury,’ wrote about mark Stratton’s writing style in his recent review of Tender Mercies:
I don’t always get what mark’s getting at, but the ride, the language, is a pleasure, and sometimes a line or two finds a place in my mind, takes root and won’t leave me alone. So the book goes back in the bag and I carry it around some more, sometimes forgetting it’s there only to be happily surprised again.
The most challenging part of writing Tender Mercies for mark was trusting the poems, trusting “when they were telling me they were connected as I was making them,” he explains. The greatest reward, now that the book has been out a while, has been “learning that the poems have resonated with readers.”
He enjoys being a part of online writing communities on Twitter and Facebook, but it puzzles him at times. “The very fact that people from all over the world have read my little scribbles fascinates me and humbles me at the same time,” he says.
mark’s most recent chapbook Postmarks is, as he says, “a total DIY job, handmade and assembled by me.” mark even took the cover photo.
One of the poems, ‘Frank,’ takes on the persona of a dead speaker: I’ll see them when/they get here, They’ll hate it too./And we’ll laugh. /Like being dead isn’t such a big deal after all.
A sign of the times, perhaps, is that ‘Frank’ was sparked by a discussion on Twitter. “The “trigger” for this was a discussion on Persona Poems on the Twitter #poetparty,” says mark. “The story in the poem is true, except for the parts I made up. It was an exercise in writing outside of my own voice, and I was fairly pleased with the result.”
It doesn’t surprise mark that poetry survives, and in some places, thrives, today. “Poetry, in some for or another, will thrive and survive because it was in our souls, bone deep, to express ourselves. The form and patterns may change, but poetry will survive as long as human kind does. Poetry truly is a way to express in words that which cannot be said any other way.”
You can follow mark (lowercase m) 🙂 on Twitter and Facebook, and please take a moment to check out his books Tender Mercies and Postmarks ~ support the art of poetry; support an indie author!
The Fashion Show In My Closet
If you read my post Mike Holmes I Think I Love You, you know how impressed I was with my husband adding baskets to our walk-in closet. But this? I had to sit down and catch my breath when I saw this surprise.
Bill, who is still working on improving our walk-in and will likely be upset I’m sharing these ‘not quite finished’ photos of our closet, made me a floor-to ceiling shoe shelf for my favorite heels. And he’s going to add little lights over them! (okay, that was my idea –thought it couldn’t hurt to ask right?) So unnecessary! So gorgeous! I don’t want to leave my closet! I could stand here and stare at it all day. But I guess I need to work, to pay for all the wood.
Our daughter saw it for the first time this morning, and ran straight to the bathroom to find me, calling out,
“Mommy! Mommy! It’s like a fashion show in your closet!”
Thank you, honey. I love you. Here are three more words: Mike Holmes who?
Interview with a Poet: Kris Bigalk
Welcome to my new series: Interview with a Poet. My aim with this series is to introduce you to a handful of the hundreds of talented poets I’ve had the pleasure of meeting – both online and in person – in recent years. Good poetry should be shared, and every poet has a story that can enlighten and inspire others. Here is Kris Bigalk’s:
Every poet knows that getting a solo book of poetry published is no easy feat, but Kris Bigalk wasn’t about to give up easily. The creative writing program director, mother and poet from Minneapolis, Minnesota entered “every contest under the sun,” worked on her manuscript constantly for three years, and spent hundreds of dollars on entry fees.
“At the end of that three-year period, I felt like I had nothing to show for it,” she says. “I had published poems in New York Quarterly, so one day I took a chance and politely emailed the editor. He liked the manuscript, and offered me a book contract. This was quite a surprise for me!”
Repeat the Flesh in Numbers will be published by New York Quarterly Books in March 2012.
Kris’s love of language and writing began at an early age. “I started keeping journals at eight or nine, to help process my emotions. What keeps me writing is the thrill of getting some words on the page and tinkering with them until they say something that I never knew that I knew,” says the founder and now director of Normandale Community College’s creative writing program—the largest Association of Fine Arts (AFA) program in the country.
What keeps me writing is the thrill of getting some words on the page and tinkering with them until they say something that I never knew that I knew. ~Kris Bigalk
Kris’s work has recently appeared in Rougarou, Silk Road, the cream city review, and other journals. She has chosen to share ‘Senor Squirrel,’ recently published in Pif magazine, with us, as it’s one many readers will identify with:
Senor Squirrel
by Kris Bigalk
The habenero peppers were no accident.
I grew them
especially for you,
to watch you pluck a bright yellow bonnet,
turn it over in your hands like a topaz
or tourmaline, then sink your bicuspids
hard into the flesh, only to throw
it three feet into the air, your mouth
on fire with my revenge, tail stiff
and high as you raced for your burrow
as I laughed, counting the losses
I had suffered at your paws – tulip bulbs,
sunflower heads, sleepy mornings
interrupted by your family arguments
in the tree outside my window…
Me gusto, Senor Squirrel.
The back-story behind this poem is rather amusing. Kris’s family is engaged in an ongoing war with the two families of squirrels in her yard, and so far, “The squirrels are winning,” she laughs. “We have a total of at least eight squirrels, some red, some gray. They fight with one another and regularly decimate my flowerbeds and my vegetable garden. One year, I planted Habanero peppers, and Señor Squirrel is about what happened next.”
Kris likes to write with humor to draw in her readers and put them at ease at the start of readings. “My funny poems tend to be the crowd-pleasers, but I write an equal number of serious poems, and honestly, they are more fulfilling for me as a writer.”
Several of the poems in Kris’s upcoming collection began with a story or an off-hand remark she heard at a party. “‘My dogs are my kids,’ she said, and I said” is a poem in the collection that centers on how dogs are really not at all like children. It’s an uncomfortable fact that we live in a country where a lot of dogs eat better, dress better, and have better medical care than a lot of children do — and the poem draws attention to an ethical dilemma many dog owners had not really considered. When I read that poem at a reading, the huge range of reactions to the content of the poem makes it a new experience every time.”
As if Kris isn’t busy enough with her five children (a daughter and four boys, including twins!), running the largest AFA program in the country, tricking clever squirrels, and launching her March 2012 poetry collection, she’s just learned that two of her poems will be appearing in a fine art book featuring photographs, poems, and prose, entitled Open to Interpretation: Waters Edge. You can look for it at http://www.open2interpretation.com and learn more about Kris and her work at the following websites:
Author websites: http://krisbigalk.wordpress.com; http://nyqbooks.org/author/krisbigalk
Book website: http://nyqbooks.org/title/repeatthefleshinnumbers
Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gps3WMR8doc&feature=youtu.be
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5003761.Kris_Bigalk
Twitter: @KrisBigalk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Repeat-the-Flesh-in-Numbers-by-Kris-Bigalk/267990013233226
I Don’t Do Mondays.
Heather Grace Stewart 