Paint Doors

My daughter recently posted this photo of painted doors in her blogpost about a recent trip to Brattle Book Shop in Boston.  These painted doors brought to mind an experience I had some years ago, while visiting the American Visionary Art Museum  in Baltimore.  There I found a compelling exhibit by African American artist Mary Proctor, who considers herself a messenger, rather than an artist  Her work is inextricable from the circumstances inspiring the creation of her art, which in turn inspired me to write the following (excerpted from my poem titled "American Visionary Art Museum"):

Inside the burning house
a woman trapped, seething
prayed for escape
from senseless cremation.
And God said: Paint doors.

While visiting museums, I often find myself jotting notes, impressions, and musings.  I just can't seem to help myself.  The visual images serve as portals of entry into strange, beautiful, and sometimes shocking other-worlds.  Several such experiences stand out as particularly intense for me, and some have resulted in poems (a few published, others not....yet).  The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam features a large collection of his art, arranged chronologically--illuminating the many periods of his artistry, his life, and his illness.  The Salvador Dali museum in Figueres, Spain is a visceral experience from the externalia of the building to the collection of comic-tragic-genius-absurdist surrealism found inside.  At the Deesses Diosas Goddess exhibit at the Institut de Cultura.in Barcelona, I was compelled to sketch the many shapes of her ancient incarnations, from prehistoric times to the Roman period.  The half-day spent viewing Joseph Cornell's shadow boxes at the Peabody Essex Museum lingers as a vivid memory not yet translated into verse.  Inside/Out: New Chinese Art, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, offered up the haunting installation titled "Thoughts of Flowers go Deeper than Looking" by artist Chen Hui-chiao, for inspiration (see my website for the poem titled "Pins and Roses" ).

If you'd like to try an exercise for writing art-inspired poetry, see my website page on Writing in Museums.

To learn more about visionary door-painting artist Mary Proctor, go to her website Missionary Mary.

For information about Ekphrastic Poetry, a term used to describe art-inspired poetry, go to Ekphrasis: Poetry Confronting Art, at the Poetry Foundation's website.

And if you have a story you'd like to share about a writing experience inspired by art (whether in a museum or encountered in any other manner), I'd love to hear from you. 

A Month of Poems

April is National Poetry Month, and I will be celebrating by participating in Molly Fisk's Poem-A-Day on-line class.  "Promptress" Lisa Cihlar will be posting a daily prompt, and participants write in response and post our drafts to a communal bulletin board.  Feedback/comments are offered among the writers.  I participated in the February Poem-a-Day class, and found it to be a wonderful way to exercise my writing muscle (that is, to write whether or not I felt "inspired"), and to link with a network of poets across the country.  The April 1st prompt has been posted: "Not another happy ending, I'm sick and tired of happy endings..."   I'll be mulling that over in my subconcious and my dreams tonight.

Tomorrow, I'll be donning my poetry party gear!  Join me in the fun.

Rejection - The Down Side of a Poet's Life

Well, I received another rejection from yet another literary journal.  Rejection is part of  the publication process, but well, I'd prefer to just skip it and move right along to acceptance, accolades, special invitations to submit my work.  A personal note of feedback or encouragement along with the notice of rejection would be an improvement over these computer-generated form responses.  You know, the ones that start with "Unfortunately..."    Say no more.

I admit that I have never been very good at Po-Biz.  I have to force myself to sit down and organize my poems into "batches" and identify my "target" publications.  And send, send, send....one trick I don't have down yet is to have my Plan B ready for the day when I receive a rejection (like today's from Barrow Street Journal), and be poised to immediately send the batch of poems back out to my next target.  And skip the licking the wound stage of my resubmission process.  Just keep the poems circulating.  It's.like the equivalent of "flipping" a house.  I'll have to get better at "flipping" my submissions...

Somehow, there must be a way to get emotions out of the way, and buckle down to accomplish the task.  I would love to hear your strategies for getting your creative work out to the publishing world.

Ok, I'm ready for the Up Side.   

Reflections on Worm Moon in Wormtown

The first full moon of spring, the Worm Moon, is shining high and brilliant tonight. The Moon has inspired many a poet with its allure: mystery, beauty, beacon.  The silver orb is night's sun-companion, the answer to a dream, the question itself.  Twenty-five years ago I wrote a moon-inspired poem and dedicated it to my beautiful infant daughter Deva. She was six months old at the time, and I was an aspiring poet and awestruck mother.  

Night falls.
Clouds clamor in
to stake a claim 
on your canvas.

You don't mind.

You slip behind 
before, above
below them
sleekly slinking
hiding, seeking
ready or not
you are there.
                                                                                    
Haunting, 
undaunted
through night sky
you saunter,
so fully
soulfully
so fuel me
you Goddess,
you Deva.

The poem appeared in an anthology, Charlton Poets and Friends, in 1990, and was the first publication of my poetry.  This same poem's most recent publication is as a tattoo on my daughter's skin.  Deva chose an excerpt from the poem, and had it imprinted in script across her shoulder. Is this not the pinnacle of publishing one's work?  Embodied poetry!  My daughter, the most meaningful & breathtaking publishing venue.
 

PoemWorcesterWorks

PoemWorks Worcester: Barbara Helfgott Hyett (left), 

& workshop members celebrating with tapas at Bocado 

after the WCPA 2010 Winner's Reading.

Enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at the Winner's Reading for the Worcester County Poetry Association's 2010 Poetry Contest: Frank O'Hara Prize, at the First Unitarian Church in downtown Worcester, followed by a PoemWorks West gathering at Bocado in Worcester.  At the Winner's Reading, Barbara Helfgott Hyett judged and graced us with personal commentary on each of the winners (1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, and 4 honorable mentions) -- and a reading of her work from 2 of her 5 books:  Rift  and The Tracks We Leave.   To view the winning poems and bios on each of the poets, check out the website of the Worcester County Poetry Association (if not posted yet, they will be up soon).


Since 2002, I have been a member of the Workshop for Publishing Poets, a poetry workshop run by Barbara out of her home in Brookline, MA.  The workshop is a hotbed of creativity, intensity of purpose, and the making of marvelous poems in a supportive community of incredibly talented and generous poets.  More than 90 poetry books have been published by PoemWorks members (including my 2007 book The Alchemy of Grief).  For information about the workshop, check out Barbara's website at "PoemWorks"