Poetry Friday: Writing about Difficult Subjects

What is the job of a poet? Let's look at the darker side of this issue for this week's Poetry Friday post.

Many years ago, I participated in a group reading event with poet Lucille Clifton. At the time, the self-help book and movie The Secret was in its heyday. I'm over-simplifying when I say that The Secret advises reader/viewers not to see the things they don't want to "attract" to themselves.

If you want to be thin, the film says, don't focus on people who are overweight or think too much about how rich foods make you fat. If the evening news makes you worry about violence, choose not to watch it, or you might be attracting that violence into your own life.

"The Law of Attraction" says thinking acts like a magnet.
Negative thoughts attract negativity into our lives.
Positive thoughts bring us good things.

Clifton addressed this issue at the reading. She said that poets should not look away from what's uncomfortable or upsetting. It is our job, she advised, to bear witness to life and events that are difficult. If we don't talk about them, who will? In doing so, we poets set the stage for change -- or, at least, for conversation.

Poet Jacqueline Jules (Zapato Power) recently contacted me. I'll explain the connection in a second.

Jacqueline is an accomplished children's author. You'll find her list of over a dozen books at her website. But Jacqueline also writes poetry for adults. She had a poem published at the online literary journal rkvry quarterly. The theme of the current issue is sexuality. Jacqueline's poem addresses the difficult subject of childhood sexual abuse.

Jacqueline invited me to interview her regarding that poem. Such interviews are a special feature at rkvry. I like the way these discussions between poet and guest interviewer provide additional insights into the poem and continues the conversation between poet and reader. You can check out my conversation with Jacqueline at rkvry.

Her poem is titled "The Stick in the Big Boy's Hand."

The Stick in the Big Boy's Hand
by Jacqueline Jules

I saw my little sister go next door
with the neighbor boy.
White sandals on her small feet,
short pink socks with frilly lace cuffs,
and blue flowered shorts
matching a cotton button-down shirt.
Mama always dressed us nice, even to play outside
on a slick June morning, two days into summer vacation.

Wet blades squeaked beneath my shoes
as I followed up the hill. Reaching the crest,
I thought, at first, she’d slipped,
seeing her prone in the dew,
her cheek pressed into the long grass

Read the rest of the poem at rkvry quarterly.

And here is a poem dealing with childhood sexual abuse is by Lucille Clifton.

What Did She Know, When Did She Know It

by Lucille Clifton

in the evenings
what it was the soft tap tap
into the room the cold curve
of the sheet arced off
the fingers sliding in
and the hard clench against the wall
before and after
all the cold air cold edges
why the little girl never smiled

The poem is unpublished online. You can read the entire poem in Clifton's book, The Terrible Stories.

1996 National Book Award nominee

Oprah Winfrey's website has an excellent list of resources for victims of sexual abuse, including children.

Questions for you. readers: What is the darkest or most personal subject you have felt brave enough to tackle in a poem? What do you think makes these two poems work, despite the troubling subject matter?

This week's Poetry Friday blog roll is at Semicolon. See you over there for more great poetry links.

Freelance Flashback: Dodge Festival at Waterloo Village

Until 1999, I had lived in northern New Jersey all my life. While there, I taught high school English. I was just one month into the first real work experience of my life when my supervisor asked me to chaperone a field trip. Another teacher's creative writing class was going to the Dodge Poetry Festival.

I'd been to the first in 1986 as a high school senior. (Some memories of that festival are in this post.) I had no idea that the festivals had continued, every other year, while I was in college and graduate school. After taking students to Dodge, I went to every festival. I called the Dodge office to volunteer and ended up with a paying summer job as a festival assistant, working at the event.

The big festival tent at Dodge's original location,
Waterloo Village. From The Star Ledger.

When we moved to Maryland, I recommended a friend for my Dodge position. I was sad to let it go. But soon, I was freelancing for the Baltimore Sun. I convinced an editor to let me cover the festival in 2002. Why should the Sun cover it? Because Lucille Clifton, who lived in Maryland, was a headliner.

Here is my 2002 article on the Dodge Poetry Festival, as it appeared in the Baltimore Sun.

Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn

Every two years, poetry lovers quietly gather in New Jersey to celebrate the magic of words

Postcard: Poetry Central

September 29, 2002|| By Laura Shovan,Special to the Sun

After four hours of driving, I turn off the highway into the Skylands region of northern New Jersey. The two-lane road is wooded. Breaks in the trees offer glimpses of unfarmed fields and quiet ponds. At 6 p.m., the parking lot of Historic Waterloo Village is still crowded.

The last of several school groups are loading teen-agers onto buses. Though they've been here since early this morning, students from the Milwaukee High School of the Arts in Wisconsin are debating about who gets to stay for the evening concert. The kids are exhausted, but want to see and hear more. Their enthusiasm is not for pop artists or even classical musicians. At this event, the main attraction is poetry; the stars are poets.

This historic New Jersey village is home to the biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, a four-day event billed as the largest poetry festival in North America.

One of the beautiful scenes at Waterloo Village, from
New Jersey Leisure Guide.

Students, teachers and the general public -- a crowd 15,000 strong -- come here every other year not only to enjoy the spoken word, but also to meet and chat with poets famous and unknown. It's not unusual to bump into old friends. Such reunions give the event a homey atmosphere, despite the large crowds.

The first two days, while open to the general public, are designated for students and teachers. Over 6,500 of them are attending free of charge. The tab is picked up by the Geraldine R. (as in Rockefeller) Dodge Foundation. The foundation is known for its generosity to the arts, particularly in New Jersey, where festival director Jim Haba also spearheads a poetry outreach program in the schools.

It is a short walk from the parking lot to the village entrance, but passing through a tunnel of trees and emerging out of sight of the cars is like entering a world apart. Waterloo's restored historic buildings and centuries-old canal intermingle with tents, large and small, where the poets read.

The enormous concert tent houses the evening events. Poets Marie Howe, Marilyn Nelson, Gerald Stern and Lucille Clifton each read for half an hour. Each "set" is punctuated by live music.

Clifton, a Maryland resident and one-time state poet laureate, has been a "Featured Poet" at every festival but the first, in 1986. She says the festival draws so many people "because poetry speaks to something in us that so wants to be filled. It speaks to the great hunger of the soul. ... I think that this [event] feeds that."

Clifton reading at the Dodge Festival.

More than 65 poets would participate this year. Top billing went to the five U.S. poets laureate from 1993 to present: Rita Dove, Robert Hass, Robert Pinsky, Stanley Kunitz and Billy Collins, whose term ends next year. It's also a festival tradition to include international poets. Palestinian Taha Muhammad Ali and Adam Zagajewski of Poland were among this year's featured poets.

Community in poetry

Despite the all-star lineup, Haba says, this is not a gathering of the poetry "in crowd." JC Todd, a poet and translator, said, "When you come to the Dodge, you see those barriers are completely permeable." The poets become real people. Poetry becomes something that everyone can participate in -- a community event.

In the first morning session, Ali is reading with his translator in a small tent near a willow-lined stream. Ali is charming and grandfatherly, with a deep, gravelly voice. It's a wonder to hear him read his poems in Arabic and then watch him as translator Peter Cole reads in English. He plays the role of conductor -- gesturing, smiling and nodding the poem along. [BTW -- This is one of my all-time favorite Dodge Festival moments, Taha Ali reading his poem, "Revenge."]

Between sessions, attendees are serenaded by Yarina, a group of musicians from Ecuador. A festival mainstay, these brothers play traditional Andean music on panpipe, guitar and drum, literally dancing around Waterloo Village.

The job of nurturing the event's celebratory atmosphere -- music, location, even the carefully chosen concessions -- belongs to Haba. "This is really a whole person experience," Haba said. "What the festival has the luxury of doing is imagining the whole person and trying to provide for it." Attention is even paid to how often the bathrooms are cleaned. He wants people to remember the poetry, not bland food or dirty toilets.

At lunch, poetry lovers choose from among a dozen food stands. At picnic tables near a waterfall, they discuss the poetry heard that morning.

Michael Murphy, who teaches at an urban New Jersey middle school, finds the setting idyllic.

"It's very hard to find silence anywhere [in daily life] and the setting, of course, is perfect for augmenting that. There is space for quiet conversations. You lean on a tree, you listen to the wind and you go back and you listen to a poet."

This church was one of the reading venues.

Veterans of the event often have great festival stories. Margaret Valentine, a New Jersey high school teacher, describes walking with poet W.S. Merwin at the 2000 festival. Just as he signed her book, she says, "Behind us there was this hole in the ground where these baby turtles about walnut size started coming out of the ground." The newly hatched turtles were rescued and brought to the pond.
 

Valentine points out that those who rush around trying to see everything miss the heart of the festival. It is better, she says, "letting the whole place happen to you. It's kind of a gluttony of words. It's just such a wonderful, freeing experience." And moments shared between poets and poetry lovers are part of what makes the Dodge festival unique.

Erma Terrezza, serving lunch at one of the food stands, Big Joe's Deep Fried Turkeys, has found herself caught up in the spirit of the event. "The atmosphere is beautiful," she said. "I was just amazed that everyone comes from all over and they're so excited." Terrezza says she plans to take time off from her turkey to hear Billy Collins read. And she will return to the next festival, she says, whether or not Big Joe's is back.

Some insider notes:

2002 was probably the most scandalous of the Dodge festivals. Headliner Amiri Baraka read a poem that got him booted from his post as New Jersey poet laureate. The state has not had a poet laureate since. (A brief article about the controversy.)

Jim Haba retired before the 2010 festival. Poet Martin Farawell became the director of Dodge's Poetry Program. When Waterloo Village closed under dubious circumstances, several cities bid to host the poetry festival. It made its urban debut, in Newark, NJ in 2010 and was held there again this October. 

You may recognize this Dodge venue from TV --
it's used for America's Got Talent.

Thanks to several of my friends who have cameos in this article: poets and educators JC Todd, Michael Z Murphy and Margaret Valentine.

Also, thanks to poet Irene Latham who, unanimously and all by herself, voted for this piece as the next Freelance Flashback.

If you'd like to vote on the next Freelance Flashback post, leave a comment. The choices are:

• Elementary School Handbell Choir
• Student Chess Tournament
• University of Maryland's Working Farm

Poetry Friday: Lucille Clifton, Children's Author

Tomorrow is 100,000 Poets for Change day, all across the world! Check out the international poster gallery here.

In Baltimore, the date just happens to coincide -- lucky for us -- with the annual Baltimore Book Festival. What better way to honor Poets for Change than with a tribute to Lucille Clifton, who died in 2010.  Her work is a powerful voice for women, for children, for people of color, and for the urban experience. Thanks to CityLit Project, Little Patuxent Review and my co-host, poet Virginia Crawford, for making this tribute discussion and reading possible.

Our event poster, designed by LPR design editor Deb Dulin.

A few weeks ago, I posted about Clifton's new Collected Poems, 1965-2010. I predict it will be an award-winner.

Although she is known as a major American poet, Clifton also authored over a dozen books for children. Her daughter, Alexia Clifton, will be participating in tomorrow's tribute. I asked Alexia about her mother's books for kids.

Hi Laura! 

Hi, Alexia!

 

1. Your mother was a prolific children’s author, yet she is better known for her poetry than for her children’s books. Why do you think that is? Which is your favorite of your mother’s books for children and why?

 

I think that with poetry, Mommy was able to tap into our need for shared human experiences, or "human-ness" as she would say, in a way that other forms of writing simply can't.  I also believe that as I aged, I paid more attention to her poetry than I did the children's books.  As children, my siblings and I were very aware of the books for children and of Mom coming up to schools or doing readings at various libraries.  My favorite is "Some of The Days of Everett Anderson" because it was the first one I remember reading on my own and I just loved the way it flowed. 

Find it on Amazon.

2. The Boy Who Didn’t Believe in Spring was a favorite at our house when our kids were young. I especially appreciate the portrayal of a boy who has a chip on his shoulder, but who is also very much a young boy. I love the book’s surprise ending, how King Shabazz finds spring. Why was it important to your mother to write about urban kids like King Shabazz?

It was always important to Mommy that her children see their reflections in books. She wanted people in urban cities to be able to point to books and tell their children, "see, he's/she's like you!".  We spent a lot of time reading or at libraries as children and always had references that we could identify with.

This book has a great surprise ending.

3. I’m looking at the dialogue, where King says to his friend Tony Polito, “’Everybody talkin bout Spring comin, and Spring just round the corner. I’m going to go round there and see what do I see.’” I noticed that “talkin,” “bout” and “comin” would typically have an apostrophe to show the dropped letter.

As a poet, I see the choice not to add punctuation here as a political statement. This is how King Shabazz speaks. He’s not shortening the word “about” intentionally, to sound cool or street. This is how the word “about” sounds in his neighborhood, among his friends. There’s real dignity and respect for the child as a full person in that small choice. Can you talk about that?

Thanks, she would appreciate your comments about that. One of the things that Mommy always talked about was being realistic. She said that children, in particular, can spot something that is inauthentic and that she wouldn't dishonor them in that way.  She had six children and so was constantly surrounded by conversations and insights from and about kids.  She was also wise enough to know that all children don't speak that way and to respect that as well.  Very often she said, "my commitment is to the story or the poem, not to the storyteller."  She was one heck of a role model.

 

4. From what experiences did your mother draw her characters, such as King Shabazz and Everett Anderson? I imagine that these characters, especially Everett Anderson who stars in a more than a half dozen picture books, became like real people.

This book covers one year of Everett Anderson's life, a poem for each month.

I can remember Mommy saying that when the first Everett Anderson book was published, my brother (her youngest son) was 6 like Everett.  I'm sure that was significant for her though the character isn't based on either of my brothers.

She was always a great observer of life and of people and I think that the characters she wrote about are combinations of lots of types that she was familiar with.  In fact, as kids, we would find ourselves looking at other people and saying, "he reminds me of Everett Anderson" or if their were very relatable characters in children's books, asking, "did Mommy write this?" Pretty funny.

 

5. In her poetry and her books for kids, your mother was a master at the small, but telling detail. I’m thinking of the poem “November” from Everett Anderson’s Year, which is a Thanksgiving prayer. It includes the lines, “thank you for Mama and turkey and fun,/ thank you for Daddy wherever he is.” How would you describe your mother’s ability to say so much in a so few words?

We are as awed by Mommy's ability to do that as everyone else!  I do not remember a time when she couldn't. I've been told that I have a little bit of that gift as well but don't bet on it :-)  

Mommy was a very complex person in a lot of ways and I think that there was a lot of thought that went into her perceived simplicity.  She was a combination of so many things and witness to so many pivotal periods of history and I believe that must have informed who she was.  Authentic and genuine connection was very important to her; and as it turns out, important to us all.

Thanks for stopping by, Alexia. I look forward to tomorrow's event and we're all thrilled that you can participate.

Alexia Clifton

Alexia “Lexi” Clifton is the owner of No Sweat Fitness, Inc. a personal training and fitness studio located in Baltimore. With over twenty years of experience and four national certifications, she enjoys volunteering with First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let's Move” initiative and “Marathon Kids,” organizations that are dedicated to fighting childhood obesity.

She is her parents’ fourth daughter and youngest child, and has inherited her mother love of reading and her father’s love of physical fitness. She enjoys spending time with her friends and family and is humbled and proud to be a part of her mother's extraordinary legacy. Alexia currently resides in Columbia, Maryland.

Enjoy your Poetry Friday, everyone. For more poetry and more multicultural books, head over to Paper Tigers, our host this week.

Poetry Friday: Clifton's Collected Poems

I was sitting yesterday in a bookstore cafe with poet Ginny Crawford, several books of Lucille Clifton's poetry filling our small table. Then I went hunting for Clifton's newly released Collected Poems, which just about collapsed our table. It is a book as mighty, inside and out, as Clifton was in life.

Celebrating the recent publication of
Clifton's mammoth Collected Poems.

Ginny and I are planning an event for this month's Baltimore Book Festival (9/28-30) -- a tribute to Clifton's work both as a poet and as an active, generous member of the literary community. She lived here, in Columbia, Maryland, and taught at St. Mary's College in the southern part of the state.

Me, CityLit Project's Gregg Wilhelm, and
Ginny Crawford at the 2011 Baltimore Book Festival.

Officially:

A panel of local poets and authors who knew and worked with Lucille Clifton discuss her poetry and legacy. Featuring: poet Linda Joy Burke, Little Patuxent Review contributing editor Susan Thornton Hobby, Edgar Silex and Lucille's daughter, Alexia Clifton. Moderated by poet Virginia Crawford and LPR editor Laura Shovan. The panel will include readings of Clifton’s poems from the newly released The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010. Attendees may be invited to write on-the-spot poems in response to Clifton’s work. This program is presented as part of the 100,000 Poets for Change annual global event. 

Saturday, September 29, 12-1:30 PM in the CityLit Tent.

Clifton died in 2010 and our local community misses her a great deal, so there is a lot of positive energy around this event.

Ginny and I will be inviting attendees to write poems using first lines of Clifton's work as a prompt, something I invite you to try at home.

Going through the Collected Works, there were so many evocative first lines to use that we had to stop at forty. As Ginny and I scanned the poems, we stopped and read, shared favorite pieces and surprises -- again, more poems than you can imagine.

For those of you who teach older children, middle and high school, I am suggesting Clifton's poem, "Miss Rosie" as a model piece.

Many teens like to write about social issues because they are newly awake to the larger world. In judging teen poetry contests, I've read my share of poems about the homeless. What's usually missing, and what Clifton does so well, is the specificity that takes a problem and invites the reader to see an individual person.

miss rosie
by Lucille Clifton
when I watch you wrapped up like garbage sitting, surrounded by the smell of too old potato peels or when I watch you in your old man's shoes with the little toe cut out sitting, waiting for your mind like next week's grocery I say when I watch you you wet brown bag of a woman

Read the rest at Poets.org.

Like me, Ginny is a poet-in-the-schools for the Maryland State Arts Council. We came across a Clifton poem with this title, "We Do Not Know Very Much About Lucille's Inner Life."

Wow. What a great prompt for middle and high schoolers, "Insert your own name and go with it."

Be brave if you do this prompt with your students. This is a BIG invitation to speak the truth. That's what Lucille Clifton was all about. She spoke the truth through her poetry. She spoke difficult things in a way that invited everyone to listen and to be brave themselves.

Stop by Katya's place at Write. Sketch. Repeat. for more Poetry Friday posts.

Poetry Friday Remembrance: Lucille Clifton

Poet Lucille Clifton died earlier this week. After I heard the news, I wrote this post about Clifton and her importance to our local literary community in Howard County, Maryland.

Clifton is best known for her National Book Award winning poetry and her long tenure as Maryland's Poet Laureate. But she was also an author of children's books.

Rather than post one of her poems for Poetry Friday, I'm sharing a wonderful clip of Lucille Clifton reading to a group of children. You can see what an easy, wonderful rapport she had with young ones.

I love how "Don't You Remember" begins: Once upon a time, there was a four year old person who remembered everything.

That one word person -- rather than girl or child -- says much about Clifton's respect for human beings, regardless of age, color or gender.

For more Poetry Friday offerings, please visit our gracious Host: Irene Lantham.

Blessing the Boats

Late last night, the local poetry community started spreading the sad news that poet Lucille Clifton died yesterday morning.

She was a resident of Howard County, Maryland, where I live. Clifton was beloved for her active support of local poets and literary groups.

Lucille Clifton's poetry had a raw honesty. When she spoke to an audience, you knew right away that the honesty of her poems equalled great personal bravery.

I was lucky enough to interview Clifton for a Baltimore Sun article about the 2002 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, where she was a featured poet.
She said, "Poetry speaks to something in us that so wants to be filled. It speaks to the great hunger of the soul and I define soul in a broad way.”

When I asked her about her popularity with Dodge attendees (Clifton appeared at every festival but the first, 1986), she said, "I do seem to have an audience that cares about me...I don’t quite know why. I’d like to think it’s because what I write about is about being human. . . I invite humans to join me there in that place where we are human.”

I am celebrating the life and work of Lucille Clifton with her poem,"Blessing the Boats."

blessing the boats

by Lucille Clifton

(at St. Mary's)

may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss

the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back

Read the rest at the Poetry Foundation.

Children's writers who follow this blog might  know that Lucille Clifton was also an author for children. In addition to her National Book Award and being a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for her poetry, Clifton's picture book, Everett Anderson's Goodbye is a Coretta Scott King award-winner. The Boy Who Didn't Believe in Spring is a favorite at our house.
 
May the tide that she is entering even now love her

Amok Behind the Scenes at the Dodge Festival II

It's the thrilling conclusion of my interview with Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival Assistant, Michael Z Murphy.

AA: Tell us about some of the poets you’ve met. I’m interested in authors whose personalities “fit” what we see in their poetry – either its tone or subject matter. Maybe people who don’t fit their poetic personas would be more interesting. You decide! MZM: Meeting poets after you know their work is always intriguing because you never know what you are going to get. Mark Doty (pictured right at a 2008 Dodge Festival panel) exudes the intelligence and humanity of his work, but his surprise is a drollness I do not see in his work. Edward Hirsch is surprisingly hysterical. He totally caught me off guard. Gerald Stern [AA: one of my favorites] still has the energy of a 20-year-old.

Lucille Clifton (pictured left) [AA: a Howard County, MD local and another fave], the only poet to attend every single Festival, is a total charmer. After meeting her, I was better able to see the sly humor in her work. All of these poets relate to the high schoolers as though they were old buddies. AA: The Dodge Poetry Festival has been compared to a rock concert or music festival. What is it about Dodge that invites the comparison? MZM: The beautiful outdoor setting is certainly one contributing factor. And there is music throughout the festival which comes as a surprise to many people.

A concert is a focused event because attendees are, for the most part, fans of the musicians. It is no different for poetry. Those who avoid it, and suffer for the loss, don’t attend. Those who love the stuff, come to hear the stuff, and they know that every other person they pass on the winding trails to various performance spaces also loves the stuff. It does a body good. In addition to being a Festival Assistant for Dodge and a communications professor at New Jersey's Union County College, Michael is a wonderful poet. He’s sharing a recent narrative poem about a childhood experience. The title says it all…but look for Michael’s use of detail to anchor us in elementary school. SHOW ‘N TELL DISASTER By Michael Z Murphy My hands held the smell of death One shouldn’t do what one shouldn’t do They were robin’s eggs in the nest Prettier and smaller than the pictures The color as delightful as Lady’s Collar and leash—robin’s egg blue Patent leather with rhinestones Not so many though as to be tasteless I held one up to the light Still it was opaque As I turned it between Thumb and forefinger A sickening sounds and goo This death burned me I replaced the disaster I returned to my seat I do not like the smell of death No amount of finger rubbing on creased School pants could rub out death’s smell Enough so my chest would not seem to crack I could not hear about borrowing From the tens column--the merry semicolon Never existed—Johnny Tremaine moved on Without me—the boy with death on his fingers Cramping began at once Within the hour I leaned over And barfed cheerios and milk All over creation Children slide back Mr. Wilson said without missing a beat Young Man, to the boys’ room fast Fred, here is a pass—ask Mr. Byrd To please come here quickly I returned to class ashen and still Stinking of death so strongly That even Mr. Byrd’s pine mop water Could not overwhelm death’s perfume As he walked out Mr. Wilson asked What else happens on Friday I knew the answer: Friday is when I murder

Michael Z Murphy, thanks for visiting! I'll say goodbye with a virtual hug.