Spark Catchers: Lemn Sissay and Amanda Gorman

There are poets writing history and writing poems drawn from history. Eavan Boland once said that a poem will revivify an event. She cautioned against revivifying trauma, because it will make that event re-traumatize. Boland is a political poet. In Ireland, where she was born, writing about the land is a political act.  Paul Valery, a French poet, said that a poem is like a small engine that recreates meaning each time it is read.  Therefore, a poem that celebrates the strength, resilience, ingenuity and power of a survivor and changemaker will inspire us.  Here are two examples: 

Lemn Sissay's poem "Spark Catchers" was commissioned to become part of the 2012 Olympic Park in London, UK. The poem is engraved at the site, and it marks a historic event in 1888, a strike by women who worked at the Bryant and May Match Factory.  Sparks in match factory posed a threat to life and work, and this poem describes the spark-catcher who helped the women survive the exploitation and danger in the factory and whose story now inspires solidarity and the power of women to create change. His poem has also been the basis of a music composition by Hannah Kendall.   "Spark Catchers" translates the words into notes and textures of music and it continues to share the light to concert audiences across the world. Listen to it here: https://youtu.be/CbpauBt9Tag
This piece of music has been performed by several orchestras world-wide, and it continues to share the light.   

Spark Catchers by Lemn Sissay

Tide twists on the Thames and lifts the Lea to the brim of Bow
Where shoals of sirens work by way of the waves.
At the fire factory the fortress of flames

In tidal shifts East London Lampades made
Millions of matches that lit candles for the well-to-do
And the ne’er-do-well to do alike. Strike.

The greatest threat to their lives was
The sulferuous spite filled spit of diablo
The molten madness of a spark

They became spark catchers and on the word “strike”
a parched arched woman would dive
With hand outstretched to catch the light.

And Land like a crouching tiger with fist high
Holding the malevolent flare tight
‘til it became an ash dot in the palm. Strike.

The women applauded the magnificent grace
The skill it took, the pirouette in mid air
The precision, perfection and the peace.

Beneath stars by the bending bridge of Bow
In the silver sheen of a phosphorous moon
They practised Spark Catching.

“The fist the earth the spark it’s core
The fist the body the spark it’s heart”
The Matchmakers march. Strike.

Lampades The Torch bearers
The Catchers of light.
Sparks fly Matchmakers strike.

In another poem by Lemn Sessay, "Making a Difference," again he demonstrates how effective poetry is to create social change.  A composer, Hannah Kendall, read this poem and used it as the basis for a musical composition for orchestra.  

In the rhythms of Lemn Sissay, an accomplished poet of London, I heard a similar beat and internal rhyme here in the United States by the poet Amanda Gorman. She too is a spark-catcher -- one who by speaking out calls for change, creates change.  This poem, "The Hill We Climb" was performed by Gorman at the inauguration of President Joe Biden.  The poem is also in Amanda Gorman's book of the same title.   

Compare the two, and be inspired to write a poem about a historic event.  

Argentinian Writer Cesar Aira on Improvisation and All That Jazz

Cesar Aira has developed a unique style that is improvisational.  He's written about 100 novels (many have been translated into English), and each is about 100 pages. He doesn't edit his work, but he has honed his style and structure. Further, he puts into a story whatever event happens (or whatever character appears) on the sidewalk outside the Buenos Aires coffee shop where he does his writing!  One of his great stories is titled "Cecil Taylor." This story is published in Aira's book of short fiction, Musical Brain published by New Directions Press.  This story defies categories. It begins with a vivid scene on a New York City street, seemingly fiction, and then quickly enters an essayistic passage that meditates on music, biography, and composition which leads to an example, the biographical details of the avant-garde musician Cecil Taylor.  You can read it here: https://bombmagazine.org/articles/cecil-taylor/

The story is about Taylor trying to launch his career in New York City (later, his career skyrocketed). When it came to composing, Taylor was totally improvisational.  He was outspoken and fascinated by and borrowed dance forms and architectural forms as he created music. This story is also about how hard it was for Cecil Taylor to reach a point where his - very original -- music was not rejected. It took awhile for his sound to be accepted by others, and then he was considered a genius. Taylor's story is one of success, but it is success only after a series of extreme and painful rejections in a many jazz clubs and performances.  He changed music, and at first, people did not understand it. They didn't think he was doing music at all. They thought he was a joke. It was not a joke at all.  One of his albums was titled, Unit Structures.  He designed a unit of sound which served as a basis for improvisation for himself and members of his band.  In this interview, he said: "Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself."  http://miyamasaoka.com/writings-by-miya-masaoka/2000/innovation-improvisation-an-interview-with-cecil-taylor/

Aira has a unique voice like nobody else. His material seems to be generated by the musings of his mind and chance occurrences. Nobody could imitate him. He is a lesson in self-confidence and the amplification of his writing voice. I have taken a quote from the story "Cecil Taylor" and arranged it into line breaks. 

…what counts in literature is detail,

atmosphere, and the right balance between the two. 

The exact detail, which makes things visible, 

and an evocative, overall atmosphere, 

without which the details would be a disjointed inventory. 

Atmosphere 

allows the author to work with forces 

freed of function, and with movements 

in a space that is independent of location, a space 

that finally abolishes the difference 

between the writer and the written: 

the great manifold tunnel in broad daylight ... 

Atmosphere is the three-dimensional 

condition of regionalism, and the medium of music. 

The line breaks allowed me to slow down my reading of it and appreciate what he is saying. So often while teaching poetry, we focus on "details, details, details."  This passage takes a larger perspective. Details create something larger, which Aira calls the atmosphere. I think of this as "the world of the story."  Many writers and readers might not like Cesar Aira's style nor the music of Cecil Taylor, however, both offer original insights into the process of composing and both honor and amplify their own unique voice, and that's a lesson worth learning. 

Minnesota Reads: The North, 103.3 FM

One never knows what question an interviewer might pose. On March 2 at 8:20 am Luke Moravic interviewed me on radio for The North 103.3 for Minnesota Reads. 

What did he ask?  How did you end up writing poetry? What does the title of your book mean? What advice do you have for other writers?   You can listen to the recording here: https://www.thenorth1033.org/arts-culture/2023-03-02/mn-reads-surface-displacements-by-sheila-packa

Many thanks to the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library who run the Minnesota Book Awards and The North, 103.3.  Because of these organizations, because my book is a finalist, I have new opportunities!