Tag Archives: Life

Offering

Posted on by Clare L. Martin

I am *completely done* with manuscript work for Eating the Heart First.  I turned in final edits to Tom Lombardo this week and he gave me praise for the work. I am happy he’s happy.  Tom has been great to work with. I am indebted to him for “discovering” me!  So glad to be a part of the Press 53 family.

I lit a candle and said a prayer of gratitude tonight for getting this far and asked for blessings on the path ahead.  The next steps are book design, production and marketing.  The projected publication is October 2012, as a Tom Lombardo Selection from Press 53.

My job now is to strategize how to sell the book, set up regional readings, and do a book launch affair.  I like this kind of work. I like to network, brainstorm, and plan; make phone calls, send emails, gas up my vehicle to get on the road to promote and sell my book!

 

I want to move you with my words.

If you want a peek at my writing you can go to this link:  http://clarelmartin.com/the-work/

Poetry has been a lifeline. Being able to create something beautiful out of sorrow has had healing effects, and I hope to be able to teach a workshop on ‘writing out the grief’ to help others sometime in the future.

I would ask any authors if they have unique and effective methods to create interest and sell books to share their ideas with me.  In return, I will offer to write a review of their published book or chapbook of poetry on this website.  

Announcing the “Voices” Seasonal Reading Series

Posted on by Clare L. Martin

I’ve surreptitiously founded a literary reading series in Lafayette, LA called the” Voices“ series.  The hope is to showcase amazing talent that we have in our community and beyond, perhaps, and bring a lively arts happening on a Saturday evening to Carpe Diem! We hope we will have success with these events and appreciate you sharing this information.

What was a whisper of a thought formed into an idea, then a plan, and then real, live happenings.  Our first literary night was in February when Patrice Melnick and I read original work. It was a great night.  

High off that success, we are planning spring, summer and autumn readings for the rest of 2012. Our goal is to present four literary events through the year to coincide with the seasons: winter, spring, summer and autumn.  There may be additional readings for special events, such as book signings.   

Our host venue is the wonderful Carpe Diem! Gelato – Espresso Bar at 812 Jefferson Street in Lafayette.  We love them and they love us! Please support Carpe Diem!

 For the “Voices in Spring” event, we have poet/professor Marthe Reed of ULL reading her bold and elegant poetry, and Bonny McDonald of LSU performing an original act of spoken word, music and movement,–both artists will present something captivating, unique and dynamic at 7 p.m. on April 21st.

It would be their pleasure to inspire and entertain you.  

A bit from the press release below.

~Clare

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.

—Anais Nin

On Saturday, April 21st, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. CARPE DIEM! GELATO-ESPRESSO BAR invites the public to spend a spring evening experiencing poetry and performance arts while enjoying gelato, espresso, tea, and pastries when it hosts VOICES IN SPRING: Poetry by Marthe Reed and Performance Art by Bonny McDonald.

Marthe Reed has published two books, Gaze (Black Radish Books) and Tender Box, A Wunderkammer with drawings by Rikki Ducornet (Lavender Ink); a third book is forthcoming from Moria Books. She has also published chapbooks, post*cards: Lafayette a Lafayette (with j/j hastain), (em)bodied bliss and zaum alliterations, all as part of the Dusie Kollektiv Series. Her manuscript, an earth of sweetness dances in the vein, was a finalist in Ahsahta Press’ 2006 Sawtooth Poetry Contest.

More info at: http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~mxr5675/ 

Bonny McDonald is a teacher, performance artist, and poet from Louisiana currently working toward a PhD in Performance Studies at LSU.  Over the last ten years, she has traveled widely as a performance poet and as a teaching-artist, leading a variety of workshops on creative writing, public speaking, and the dramatic arts. Part song, part dance, part poetry reading, her recent work explores boundaries between waking and dream, reality and fantasy, the body and the page.

The free event begins at 7:00 p.m. 812 Jefferson Street, Lafayette

Re: EATING THE HEART FIRST

Posted on by Clare L. Martin

What fueled the writing of many of the poems in Eating the Heart First was the desire to know myself more deeply, beyond motherhood, beyond wifehood; to discover more of myself through the creative process and craft of poetic art. I needed to become something more—to be transformed.

 

“Write from the depths of your experience—the writing itself will deepen experience.”

These are poems of grief, of ecstatic love and rage. Yes, many of these poems are sorrowful, but there is joy as well.  Find it and you will find something rare to be treasured. The poems are authentic although many of the narratives are likely fictional. Who is to say what the factual truth is?  I was aiming for something higher.

All of my experience informs my art. I have gone to the very edge in this writing and have come back whole.  There are personal poems and there are persona poems.  Take the journey with me. Trust my voice.  

The poems ask for a sacrifice. The poems ask you to give something of yourself in order to imagine their worlds, feel their emotional impact. The price is not too high, and there may be a catharsis, an illumination and some pleasure for you.

Much of my art is in pursuit of the image.  I strive to create arresting, powerful images and metaphors.  While some border on the surreal, I believe they are still accessible.  That is my best talent, I believe.  

I can’t wait for you to have this book in your hands or in your computer/e-reader! Fall 2012!

More soon…be well…there’s writing to do.

8 years and a lifetime

Posted on by Clare L. Martin

It is rare to ever feel that you have triumphed in life. That is how I feel—triumphant and profoundly grateful.  I made something real.  It was just a wisp of an idea which came on a wind, a small spark that became a fire in me. The work of 8 years and a lifetime went into Eating the Heart First.

I had a baby when I was 15. He was born premature.   Adam’s life is a long story that I cannot tell here. What I can relate is that after a life lived beyond the doctors’ predictions, a life of joy and pain, Adam passed away in 2004. When Adam died, I made a conscious decision to honor his memory by committing myself to The Writing Life. Because the focus we had given to Adam’s care was suddenly not necessary any more I thought, “Beyond what I need to give to and be for my family what can I do for myself?” I needed to write to feel as though I was not giving up on a long held dream. I also made the promise to my daughter, who needs me to succeed; she needs me to set an example for her so that when she dreams she will believe that she can make her dreams real too.

I choose to live without regret. To live without regret we must follow our better instincts which lead us to the Good. The first task was to read, read, read and write, write, write with the focus that I would get better and better and better. I got out of bed to write. I wrote while driving the car. I wrote my dreams and memories. I wrote what I believed was in the heads of strangers. I sought out other writers to be a part of a community and began submitting my work.

I took on my Writing Life as though it was a business. Being a poet was my job. I had a professional background in public relations, marketing and sales. I decided these skills would be necessary to have any success at writing. 

In the 8 years since Adam’s death, sixty poems of mine have been published.  I have read publicly about twenty times. I am a Teaching Artist with the Acadiana Center for the Arts. I just founded the “Voices” reading series and I have a forthcoming book.

Writing has saved my life many times. Creating this book gave me not only the satisfaction of making something beautiful and lasting but marks a true high point in my way of living.  I will spare you the clinical details, but I have struggled for decades to be well, to recover from bad breakdowns that left years in ruins.

Being able to claw myself back to a real and rewarding life is thankfully possible because I have good caregivers, a strong family and wonderful friends.  I have not beaten the disease but I have beaten it back–

The making of the book (the writing of it) has come to completion and is outside of me now.  So much energy is freed. I will get behind the book when it is published in the fall in every way I can. I am looking forward to the new challenges that selling a book will present.

Eating the Heart First, my debut poetry collection, is slated for a fall 2012 release as a Tom Lombardo Selection from Press 53. You will be hearing much more about it. I must self-promote because I want to move you with my poetry. 

I invite you to read me here. And do keep your eye on this site for news of new adventures in my Writing Life, readings and new publications and such.  Thank you.  

“Come, come, be transformed. “

COMING SOON: My First Book!

Posted on by Clare L. Martin
I have been BURSTING to tell you this:
 
It’s OFFICIAL!
 
My debut poetry collection, Eating the Heart First, will be published by Press 53 this fall as a Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection.
 
I am profoundly grateful to Kevin Morgan Watson and Tom Lombardo for this incredible opportunity to share my words with the world. I poured myself out for this book–
 
Thank you thank you thank you…♥
 
More soon.
 
Now it is time for DANCING.

Transformation

Posted on by Clare L. Martin

Something is happening to me—something big.  I cannot divulge what it is yet but I am posting this poem which addresses the notion of change and the power of dreams.  

It was first published in Referential Magazine.

Haunted

by Clare L Martin


I am kept by crows.
They beckon out of sleep,

calling come, come
be transformed.

Crow-by-crow
line up in dreams,

punctuating visions.
Such an omen inspires.

A crow told me:

Let me be a whorl of darkness—
Let me be a fist in the sun.

The crow on the wire
is a keeper of silence.

What a crow gathers
becomes soot and nothing more.

I am in the night. I am in it
as though it cloaks me–

I am winged
and feathered like the crow.

Sheer, yet impenetrable,
rising on wind.

Two Dreams of The White Horse (2005)

Posted on by Clare L. Martin

May 10, 2005

I dreamed of the White Horse again last night. In this new dream I was its master. On my command it leaped high fences topped with barbwire and lay still without breathing in tall grass to escape detection of the mafioso hunting me. When I’d fled the murderers, I strode into the house of The Don and walked directly to him. He was a thin, old man in loose clothing without a single gray hair. I whispered in his ear. The breathless hitmen falling over themselves to reach me were told: “Leave this woman alone.”

The dream that follows is the one I had February 5, 2005, which was my introduction to the symbol of the White Horse. I think this first dream of the White Horse could have been the awareness I had been chasing illusions and this second dream indicated I’d reached some mastery over my life.

Chasing the White Horse –Dream of 2/5/05

I had a psychotic break and was out of my mind for a year or many years. The years were black pages. I had to be placed in a secluded, secret house and attended by several plain-clothes, patronizing nurses. My husband divorced me and remarried a beautiful blond woman. My daughter simply forgot me. My ex had more children with the woman. I saw him and he was indifferent toward me. He said now, with the new wife, he knew what love really was and that the sex with his new beautiful wife was fantastic and meaningful. The most significant people in my life were unreachable, despite all of my efforts to remind them who I was and what I believed we meant to each other. I was totally lost and alone. The heart of my life dissolved. My loved ones had “moved on” and I was without direction. I had been fighting my demons only with the hope of returning to my family– but they were by choice through with me.

I wrote a book when I’d recovered my mind and gave the manuscript to the suspicious nurses reluctantly, but with desperate need that they would see that it got published. They smirked and took the manuscript. I escaped on a moonless night and ran barefooted through cold mud and unlocked several wooden gates to freedom.  I had no idea where I was. The place was rural and unfamiliar to me.

I attempted to be guided by constellations but my knowledge of the heavens was vague. I followed a river until I found a city. I entered a boutique that sold books, wind chimes and sterling silver picture frames. When a happy customer spoke to me I was surprised to learn I was famous. Many people had read the book and loved me but I didn’t know them and they meant nothing to me. I was helped my on my journey across America with money, shelter, clothes and food.

I arrived at my parent’s home. There was a wild, white stallion tearing up the lawn. My father held it tenuously by a thin string. The White Horse broke free before I could close the gates. I chased the White Horse. It ran into traffic and caused a calamitous accident but was unharmed. The horse bucked and galloped through my hometown and breezed into a weird pastel colored subdivision that looked like rows of storybook castles. I chased the White Horse into a house with an elaborate checker-pattern inlaid wood spiral staircase that rose into infinite space. I caught glimpses of the horse travelling upwards but it was far away. I was tired of running, so I climbed the staircase on my hands and knees. I became dizzy from looking up. Space tightened. I became disoriented. I couldn’t tell anymore which way was up and which way was down. The stairwell shut around me like a coffin. I woke up confused and hopeless.

Lifework

Posted on by Clare L. Martin

 

STILL LIFE ON DESK

 

Here are links to my creative works accessible on the Internet.

 THE WORK

Year Eight of The Writing Life Begins

Posted on by Clare L. Martin

SUN RISES IN A NEW YEAR

March 15th, 2004, our family suffered a loss–the death of my son, Adam.  In my grieving, I reflected on my life and his life and thought: “What can I do with my life to honor him?” I had always believed myself a writer but struggled with discipline, leaving many things unlearned and unwritten. I thought back then: “If I can do “this one thing” to the best of my ability and honor (not neglect) my God-given gifts, then such a choice would be the best way I could honor Adam.” 

Adam’s death, although hard to bear, was the catalyst for choosing to follow this life-path with dedication and passion.  I have grown personally and have had numerous wonderful opportunities via The Writing Life.  Dear Adam gave so much and continues to bless…gone from us almost 8 years. He would be 28 this year. Wow.

And although much of my posting on the Internet is self-promotion, I think it is important to share this story and the bountiful blessings I have had in these remarkable eight years. Self-promotion is necessary because I want you to read my creative works.

I want to move you with my poetry.

I have had many struggles—some from which many people could not recover. I have recounted many here in previous postings, if you want to look back.  Right now I am looking forward which I believe is necessary for true healing.

I am grateful to God-Creator-Universal Force for Good-Power of Love or whatever it is that I do believe in for pulling me through, shoring up my confidence and for putting people in my path who have aided me with loving care, support and friendship.

I am excited about 2012. I am a mother of a 16-year-old who is smart and beautiful. She inspires me everyday.  I am married to a loving, strong and honest man.  I couldn’t ask for more, but for me there will be more in 2012—more writing, more reading, more learning and more teaching.  The momentum is with me as I continue my lifework.

I am on a path and I do not allow much to divert me from it.   

 

Thanks for reading. 

~Clare

Sunrise From Blue Thunder

Posted on by Clare L. Martin
 
I just purchased and received “Sunrise From Blue Thunder,” the new poetry anthology edited and published by Pirene’s Fountain as a response to the Japan earthquake and tsunami.  My poem “What Came After” appears in it. I’m honored to be included in this anthology with so many great poets. Sincere thanks to Katherine Herschler, Ami Kaye and Tracy McQueen,  Japan Project editors.
 
*Proceeds go to ongoing relief efforts in Japan.*
 
Click here to order. Quick and easy via lulu!