30 Habits of Highly Effective Poets #23: Kathy Figueroa on Chores

Kathy Figueroa is one of the many wonderful poets I've met through the 100,000 Poets for Change initiative. She lives in Ontario, Canada.

Kathy has a series of poems about chores. What a great way to turn housework into a source of joy -- by writing about it. It's a new angle on whistle while you work. (For another poet on this subject, check out Julia Alvarez.)

I have been working on simple odes with some fifth graders this week. They love the idea that a few juicy similes and hyperbole can make something as ordinary as masking tape sound amazing! (I even made on-the-spot masking tape art to prove the point.) It's the power of tone. Of course, we talked about Pablo Neruda's Odes to Common Things -- a category which Kathy's poem falls into.

Here is Kathy:

I wrote, 'Ode To Housework,' in practically no time at all because I felt tremendously inspired to sit down and write instead of getting directly to work tidying up the house. (I will say that my yard looks very nice, though.)

Ode To Housework
~by Kathy Figueroa

It's time to clean
This house
Though I'm allergic
To dust
Someone will
Be over soon
So tidying
Is a must
Let me think
Of this drudgery
As something
That's actually fun
Otherwise, it's going
To be awhile
Before I get this
Housework done
Let me delight in
Washing the floor
Instead of thinking
It's such a chore
The cat boxes
Will be fun to change
I'll whistle a tune
As I rearrange
The laundry will go
In the washing machine
The plants
Will be watered
So they stay green
Scrubbing the sink
Won't take as
Long as I think
And then, after I do
I'll polish the loo
Cobwebs can be swept
Away with a broom
Then I'll vacuum
The living room
(Note to myself:
Remember to take care
And make sure I get
All the dog and cat hair)
Yes, I guess
My house is a mess
I could do more
And procrastinate less
Then, in no time
This house
Would be clean
And I'd be
The happiest
Person you've seen

('Ode To Housework,' was first published in The Bancroft Times newspaper on January 5, 2012.)

The Bancroft Times included this illustration "originally made from engravings created, in large part, by renowned artisans, Thomas and John Bewick, date from prior to 1784!"

You can read more of Kathy's work -- including several more from her "housework" series, at her Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/Kathy.Figueroa.Poetry

You can also find clips of Kathy reading her work on YouTube.

Obsessions

I would probably never write a thing if I didn't pay attention to my obsessions.

I'm not talking about chocolate, much as I crave it.

He drives me wild.

This is a different type of obsession -- when something catches your eye or ear and you immediately feel, "I want to learn everything I can about that."

Normal people don't let these "catch your ear" moments develop into full obsessions, but doing so is key to how I function as a writer.

Writers have obsessions, and that's a good thing. The more involved we become with an idea, concept, or tidbit from history, the more deeply we can express these things in a poem, play, story, or essay. I know it's a true obsession when I am researching or writing and I go into hyper focus. My kids know not to interrupt me then. It's almost a physical pain to be called out of what I'm working on to help find a missing shoe.

My current obsessions are:

• The Roc-A-Jets, 1950s all-girl rockabilly band based in Baltimore
• This painting, by Vincent van Gogh:

All it took was one look at that ocean of a beard, and I thought, "That painting might be a good subject for a poem." It only took thirty minutes of clicking around the Internet to find out that van Gogh had an uncharacteristically close relationship with his subject, postmaster Joseph Roulin, and Roulin's family.

What happens when obsessions collide? I don't have mental space for them both.

I'm writing down as much as I can about Roulin now, when the idea has energy. As long as I capture the initial impulse, I can come back to Roulin and van Gogh later.

Then, it's back to work on my piece about the Roc-A-Jets. Roulin looks like he would have enjoyed a good rockabilly show.

Stay tuned.

One of my favorite examples of a writer clearly obsessed with a subject appears in the novel The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje (here is one blogger's review). Chapter 7 covers Kip's bomb squad training in the kind of attentive detail that can only come from deep research.

Come out to Ahh, Coffee! in Annapolis this Saturday evening and to hear the end result of one of my obsessions. I'll be featured at a reading, along with  my friend Fernando Quijano III. This will be my first public reading of a long ekphrastic poem. It's based on a work of fringe art -- the title of which I can't repeat here. Seriously.