Deep Dive into Poetic Process
Christie and Rosemerry talk nitty gritty about the making of a poem
“So many ways to do it right.” —Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Preview: Episode 62, How Does the (Poetic) Sausage Get Made?
“What makes a poem good?” Christie asks at the start of this episode. And Rosemerry refuses to answer, arguing against the word good. In an attempt to get to the heart of a poem’s “hows,” the co-hosts talk about one poem in particular, “For When People Ask” (found below). They talk about where poems come from, how metaphors come in, the importance of the order of details, how a poem moves, uncertainty, trust, artistic honesty, and getting out of the way. It’s a show that opens the door on the inner workings of a poem—which, it turns out, are quite similar to the inner workings of any other “good” writing or art.
What We’re Reading and Listening to:
Rosemerry:
I AM SO EXCITED!! I got my contributor copy of The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy in the mail this week. Edited by Emerging Form guest James Crews (EF Episode 34), it’s a beautiful, heart-opening, joy-full book that is making me laugh and gasp and sigh. Fifty thumbs up (I have 48 phantom thumbs in addition to my two real thumbs). Featuring poems by Danusha Laméris (EF episode 29), Naomi Shihab Nye, Jack Ridl (EF episode 54) Ross Gay, Ada Limón, Marie Howe and so many of my favorite contemporary American poets. A triumph!
A friend recently sent me two children’s books, both of them published by Enchanted Lion Books, both of them about grief. And I have to say that with their simple stories and tender imagery, they both deeply moved me. Cry, Heart, But Never Break by Glenn Ringtved and illustrated by Charlotte Pardi comes from Denmark and tells a tender story of death arriving in a home, and his “heart is as red as the most beautiful sunset and beats with a great love of life.” And My Father’s Arms are a Boat tells a simple story of a man and his young son coming together to grieve the loss of their wife/mother. This Norwegian book, written by Stein Erik Lunde and illustrated with Oyvind Torseter’s ethereal cut out illustrations, meets great sadness with deep intimacy, silence and beauty.
Christie:
Inspired by a conversation with one of our upcoming guests, I recently picked up Ross Gay’s book of poetry, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. I love so much about Gay’s poems, but what I love most is his frequent references to and descriptions of trees and plants. He’s a gardener, and it shows.
As long as we’re talking about poetry, I loved this poem about marriage by Emerging Form guest Alison Luterman, published at Vox Populi.
Some years ago, I helped create the Finkbeiner Test for writing about women scientists. Now Ann Finkbeiner herself has written a wonderful story for Scientific American about how “Women Are Creating a New Culture for Astronomy.” It gives me hope that someday the Finkbeiner test will become obsolete.
Last newsletter, I wrote about how much I loved Yaa Gyasi’s novel, Transcendent Kingdom, and I couldn’t wait to read her debut novel, Homegoing. It’s as good as the reviews say. It follows a family from Ghana through multiple generations, as it examines how the slave trade, conflicts between the Fante and Asante nations, British colonization and the American South shaped this family and their native country.
I’ve really enjoyed Julie Beck’s series on friendship at the Atlantic, and found the latest installment, about arranged friendships, fascinating and thought—provoking.
For When People Ask
I want a word that means
okay and not okay,
a word that means
devastated and stunned with joy.
I want the word that says
I feel it all all at once.
The heart is not like a songbird
singing only one note at a time,
more like a Tuvan throat singer
able to sing both a drone
and simultaneously
two or three harmonics high above it—
a sound, the Tuvans say
that gives the impression
of wind swirling among rocks.
The heart understands the swirl,
how the churning of opposite feelings
weaves through us like an insistent breeze
leads us wordlessly deeper into ourselves,
blesses us with paradox
so we might walk more openly
into this world so rife with devastation,
this world so ripe with joy.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
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This week, we share how our listeners respond when asked “How do you deal with the inner voice that says, ‘You’re not good enough?’” The answers are funny, practical, philosophical and, well, helpful.
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Two Questions:
(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)
What happens to your first drafts?
What’s your favorite question to ask yourself when you edit your work?