Lana Wiggins, Patrice Melnick and I will be interviewed on KRVS 88.7 FM Lafayette, LA on April 13th at 3:30 PM to promote poetry (National Poetry Month) the Casa Azul Reading Series, and the co-reading Lana and I will be having at Casa Azul Gifts on April 15th at 7 PM. Lana and I will each read a short poem on the air! Our interview can be heard live over the Internet at the appointed time through the KRVS website. www.krvs.org
I’ve spent most of my energy this weekend on writing-related activities. I sent out two packets of poems (8 poems total) to two journals. I revised a group of poems and researched small presses and publishers for possible avenues for my manuscript. I feel very good about the opportunities. I also spent a bit of time editing the manuscript, Eating the Heart First. I plan to write a post regarding the impetus for this manuscript next week. One thing I can say is that setting aside the Garbage Woman work in favor of this work is a smart move. I always wanted to title my first collection, Eating the Heart First, anyway. Garbage Woman has a negative connotation that I didn’t want associated with me, after all. There is an ugly slang term that I learned about after I was using the title.
My original poem “Garbage Woman” which inspired that effort can be read here.
More later…be well.
Scythe accepted my poems “White Bull, Black Road,” “The Woman You Married,” and “Little Poem at Pink Moon.” So thrilled to be in this new journal. My sincere thanks to Joe and Chenelle Milford.
Yesterday’s entry was lame. I was tired and did not give the words any of my near-spent energy. So I would like to write about writing now and how I believe my work is developing.
I live a quiet, family-centered life. I try to create a serene home for my husband and daughter. Writing keeps me sane. Creating elevates me emotionally, mentally and spiritually. The way to self, for me, is through writing. The page is the gateway. The process, for me, is prayer and the path to enlightenment itself.
To speak of my voice, I would say that it is more prescient, clear, honest and intentionally jarring. What I am striving to do is explore the perhaps unknowable wilds of the interior, and to grasp something of the ferocity and beauty of the world through language. I am less concerned with being “accessible” as opposed to writing what is true and poetic.
I am often concerned with the subconscious realm and the dreamscape. I am in “pursuit of the image.” To me, the image is the fruit of the imagination and to draw out scintillating, complex and startling imagery is most desirable. I believe that I am uniquely gifted with being able to impact the reader’s sense through my imagery. I am certainly always intrigued by a poet’s skill with images as a reader. I would say that for me it takes precedence but cannot stand alone as poetry.
I am taking time to allow the poems to breathe. I am taking more calculated steps to shape them. I am approaching the poems with more seriousness and heeding their urgent whispers. I have a sense of urgency within me to produce—and to produce the best work possible. I wholeheartedly believe that I am getting better and better at the craft and the creative groove is deepening within me.
I still feel all that I am saying is surface. I should let the work speak for itself. To conclude, I offer a poem of mine which I am especially proud of which is no longer accessible online. Not sure what happened to the magazine in which it first appeared.
Peace.
4-WAY STOP AT DUSK
Little birds, little pirates plotting
murder on the wire
crave bloodwine—their flight
impresses a watermark
on my soul, dusts
sunset with silhouettes.
Twilight is a pearl
crushed in a raptor’s claw.
The kestrel’s razor wing
bleeds the field.
©2006 Clare L. Martin
First appeared in Farmhouse Magazine, May/June 2006 Issue , and also appears in Best of Farmhouse Magazine Anthology, Fall 2008
I’ve been entering new territory in my writing. I am glad to be pushing through and developing artistically. The new scape is surreal and interesting to me. Perhaps it is only interesting to me but I am still working on publishing poems and a book at some point. I am not “putting it off” just waiting and shaping the poems I have.
I looked at “Eating the Heart First,” a working title for a collection, and I feel somewhat encouraged. My mind just isn’t reacting to it today. I tried and it felt forced. I did produce a new poem today. ..my dreams are so rich…my poetry benefits from their ‘aroma’ so to speak.
I am happy to report that I will read my poetry again at Casa Azul Gifts with Lana Wiggins on April 15th, at 7 PM.
Think of April 15th as ‘Poetry Day’ rather than tax day and celebrate the word revolution with us.
I’ll try to keep this blog up better than I have in the past months…soon.
It was a good day.
Clare L. Martin 