One Art

 Today, I was interviewed by Cathy Wurzer on Minnesota Public Radio.  She asked me what poem made me want to become a poet.  This is an interesting angle!  My answer surprised me!

You can listen to the conversation here:https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/04/17/duluth-poet-sheila-packa-shares-her-favorite-poetry

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!  

A Different Engine

A Different Engine: How to Power Your Writing

March 6, 13, 20, 27 on Zoom

Come join my writing workshop and explore techniques that power your own writing.  I'd love to see you! It's happening on Zoom: four sessions, Monday evenings in March, starting at 7:15 pm. In this workshop, you can work in your favorite genre (poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction). We will focus on techniques to make writing vivid, intense, and alive. Register here at Lake Superior Writers. $60.

Register here:

https://lakesuperiorwriters.org/a-different-engine-ways-to-power-your-writing/?fbclid=IwAR0Bd9ekgNxofJZN67xbR5qO2wgL6uoZ7Zt5Wiog5qRWsG-eypUav9EU_-A

Bringing Joy

 

In celebration of Joy Harjo's appearance at the Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College, the editors of this fine collection asked writers to send work that was inspired by the writing of Joy Harjo.  It is a wonderful collection of writings, and I'm proud to have some poems in it. 

First it was an e-book, and now, since it received a 2022 MN Author Project Award in the Communities Create category, it has become a physical book.  

The lead editor, Darci Schummer, has done a fantastic job gathering and putting together this noteworthy collection.  

A reading and book celebration will be on February 7, 2023. 6:30 reception and 7:00 pm reading on the beautiful campus of Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College!  

Surface Displacements, a Finalist in Poetry at the Minnesota Book Awards

I'm thrilled to be among the poetry finalists for the Minnesota Book Award!  Here's a list of all the finalists in all categories: https://thefriends.org/minnesota-book-awards/minnesota-book-awards-winners/

Celebrate the state's best books at the annual Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony. Readers, writers, and book-lovers from all over the state gather together for one incredible evening to honor stories of Minnesotans that connect us all. Awards are presented to winners in nine book categories and to the recipient of the Kay Sexton award, with special guests. 

Minnesota Book Awards 35th Annual Ceremony
Tuesday, May 2 | Ordway Center for Performing Arts
Tickets will go on sale January 30, 2023

College of St. Scholastica Rose Warner Reading Series

 I'm pleased to join northern Minnesota writers Linda LeGarde Grover, Ellie Schoenfeld, and Nick Trelstad leading workshops for students.  The keynote is poet Michael Bazzett.  

2023 Rose Warner Reading Series

February 3, 2023 | 9:30 AM – 1:45 PM

Join us for a free, day-long celebration of English literature for Northland teachers and students, with our special guest speaker, the renowned Minnesota poet, Michael Bazzett.

https://css.edu/2023rosewarnerreadingseries/home?authuser=0

Jorie Graham: The Question

In the interview in the New Yorker magazine January 8, 2023, 

Jorie Graham Takes the Long View, Katie Waldman the interviewer asks this question: 

You write so sharply about the way the mind, and your mind, moves. I’m

curious about that poetic mind. Is it the same mind you bring to the breakfast

table or the garden?

 

JG: The mind is a current—let’s take a river as an example. It not only carries

whatever it picks up by what it traverses (breakfast table, garden), but it is also

changed in its course by what it traverses.Its weight changes, its speed, the

direction in which it was going. Being taken by surprise is one of the fundamental

experiences for any poet writing any poem. You know you are in the grip of a

poem when it—the subject, the terrain you are entering, traversing—reorients you

and puts you before a question that you did not know existed. You are irrevocably

changed. One writes to be so changed. The silence you break to enter the poem is

never the same silence closing over again when the voice reënters the silence.The

poem is an action you have taken and an experience you’ve undergone. You’re not

the same person you were when you undertook that poem.That sensation of

transformation is addictive—spiritually and emotionally.Why else would anyone

attempt this insanely difficult—practically impossible—practice day after day for a

lifetime? One is in it for the conversion experiences.What are the ideals of form

for except to get us into legitimate danger that we may be legitimately rescued,

Frost asks. The key term in this brilliant formulation is “legitimate.”

Graham's poetry with its philosophical questions examines life, human life in an increasingly alarming

world beset by violent storms, floods, wildfire, and rising seas. We know what is happening, and she 

describes this as a runaway system, yet we cannot stop. Her consciousness is sharp and clear, and her

 voice is powerful.

https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/to-the-last-be-human-by-jorie-graham/

Ekphrasis: Poems in the Art Community

 The Kalevala, a series of poems originally performed in the oral tradition, inspired Akseli Gallen-Kallela.  

The story of Lemminkainen is part of the Finnish epic poem, the Kalevala. Originally oral storytelling, 12,000+ verses were recorded in writing and published by Elias Lönnröt in 1845.  These creation stories, adventures, and magic charms have been famously illustrated by the Finnish visual artist, Akseli Gallen-Kallela.  

This painting focuses on the Kalevala's character Lemminkäinen,  a great warrior and womanizer, who dies following his attempt to kill the Swan of Tuonela in the realm of the dead. His mother drags the black river for the dismembered pieces of her son and puts him back together.  For Lemminkainen's mother, it works. He lives again, and unfortunately, he has not learned his lesson.  

As often as visual artists illustrate and enhance stories, poets will describe and amplify visual art work. This type of poetry is called ekphrasis. It's a Greek word that means description. A famous example of an ekphrastic poem is "Archaic Torso of Apollo" by Ranier Maria Rilke. You can read it here: https://poets.org/poem/archaic-torso-apollo

In my book, Surface Displacements, the poem, "Kalevala Viidetoista Runo/ Poem 15," is an ekphrastic poem in response to the Gallen-Kallela image.  Any mother who has lost a child can relate to the impulse to bring the child back to life.  In my poem, I speak from the perspective of the mother.  Here's an excerpt:

I take him back not into my body

that conceived, received, and raised this one

but back to his own. To the sun

...

with a needle, I pierce the broken ends

and pull my thread.

I turn the edges, commend to God.

Say, remember him.

Take this cold back to the reaching ice

seize this body with new breath.

I shake the heart to make it start ticking

and drop it into place

put back the ribs and pull up the skin.

On the stones, he gasps.

Where I have wept and pounded

on the shore where I have assembled him.  

Within the arts community, writers, composers, musicians and visual artists inspire each other. Composer Olli Kortekangas borrowed four poems from my books Cloud Birds and Echo & Lightning to create "Migrations," a cantata premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra in 2016.  This year, composer Wendy Durrwachter is creating a musical composition for the title poem of Surface Displacements. I am honored by their artistic work and enriched by the additional interpretation and beautiful music that they create.