Thank you for the mention of February Poetry Adventure, Tara! I'm glad you are along for the Adventure and am looking forward to reading what you create. :)
This poem was really interesting. I read it as is and felt the speaker in it. That is often how I feel when I read concrete poems. I feel like I am in conversation with the poet. Then, I re-read just the left side all the way through and felt like I was hearing my own voice. I really enjoyed both versions. And the topic is a tough one to tackle. But those last five lines truly got me. So powerful. I think they will live inside my mind for a good long while.
Thanks so much for reading, and for the specific reflections on the voices in the poem. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness as a reader. And I can’t wait for February!
Yes, my 30 year-old degree is in archaeology and women's studies. I started writing when my kids were young, and took my first creative writing class in the fall of 2022. I started dabbling in poetry maybe 10 years ago, but have started to take it more seriously in the last few years. The road is winding! And your question combined with a totally unrelated joke my husband made this morning sparked a new poem. So, it's not even February and already you're helping write poetry! 😀💙
That is so interesting, Tara. My degree was in anthropology* but I studied mostly social/cultural and linguistic anthropology. I never had the opportunity to delve into “stones and bones” as the moniker was at that time, but was profoundly interested in it. I don’t know what archaeological field you were in, so maybe this doesn’t apply. I wish I’d changed my major the minute one of my professors dismissed Ruth Benedict as a poet in a way that indicated true contempt.
I love this poem. The way you stack stanzas on the left and right side, as if removing bricks carefully and marking them by their placement in emotional and chronological time, is loving and yet precise. It’s as if you’re holding back tears by pulling back into methodology. Really well executed.
And yes, burn the letters. Some things are better left unspoken, or defiled by voyeurism. Let them go.
I did a lot of cultural anthropology classes, too. But my focus was archaeology. I primarily did fieldwork in the Northeast US, as well as a site mapping project. But I did spend a summer at a dig in southwestern Colorado back in high school. It's fascinating stuff, but then there's the downsides... stolen artifacts, human remains in museums, racist interpretation, sexism within the profession. I got pretty disillusioned by the end and never worked in the field. But I still find it so compelling.
Glad you liked the poem. It was a tricky one, fun to puzzle out but challenging too. I've been noodling on it for probably 3 years. Glad to have put it out in the world so I can forget about it for a while.
Glad you put it out there, too! Yes, the things that you mentioned, not considered an issue at the time. And the sexism was just appalling. Glad you retained the soul of a poet.
Very cool! The path of life is so interesting. I always love hearing about people's journeys.
I had great dreams of being an archeologist after watching Indiana Jones when I was six. Then I learned it was mostly about digging and paperwork and less about crazy adventures and my interest cooled. 😂 However, I still find it fascinating!
I read a story about Pompeii in 6th grade with a short “careers” section at the end about archaeologists. I was hooked. At age 16 I begged my parents to let me attend a high school field school in the Southwest. They hoped it would cure me. It didn’t.
Thanks for the poem and commentary. I think the presentation (whitespace, enjambment, whatever you want to call it) of a poem is certainly important. But, the level of salience varies from poem to poem. I love that a poem can be a work of auditory art, visual art, literature, and more. I just posted one myself with a strong tie to its textual form, so I used an image too.
As for the theme and content of your poem, I think I agree. Inherit some things, but let secrets lie.
Thanks so much for reading. I agree about a poem by poem approach. Ooh! I love the image idea. I posted a link to an ekphrastic poem I had published a few weeks ago. Is the image the inspiration for the poem? Or more of an accompanying visual? I'll check it out, for sure. And familial secrets, gah! I feel like I'm a magnet for them. They can get heavy. Appreciate the engagement. Cheers!
Ah, by image I just meant a screenshot of text formatted a particular way, like yours. A PDF would also accomplish this in theory, though perhaps not on Substack. I have also dabbled in doodling on a printed out poem to some interesting effect. And I love a good accompanying photo/drawing.
Looking forward to more! Love hearing about the process behind the poem.
I love the format of this poem. The way my eyes move across the page to capture each stanza, each grouping, has me feeling the effects of the dementia and the pain there, as well as the urgency and petition to "burn" those "letters" in a visceral sort of way. Bravo.
I loved this poem, Tara, thank you for sharing it. I found the urgency of it -- the insistence -- beautiful and heartbreaking. I cleared out my parents’ house (my childhood home) and I did indeed find letters, but nothing that pained me in them. What pained me was gathering my Dad’s clothes and PJs, and all of his personal toiletries...it felt like breaking his privacy. That was hardest for me. The stuff I was never meant to see.
"The stuff I was never meant to see." That's it, isn't it? That sense that you are invading their privacy, especially if they were private people who kept a lot to themselves. My husband and kids helped me a lot. But the hardest were the times I had to work alone. Everything just felt so heavy. Thanks for the comment and letting me know about your experience. It always helps to feel less alone. 💙
Yes indeed. My Dad was very private. But on the flip side, the job was in some ways an archaeological dig through my own childhood, and helped me know my parents better. To see some of the things he kept, his quirky notes, it was an intimacy I was grateful for, a counterbalance to how much I missed him. Strangely, that made "clearing out" all the more bittersweet. I feel this VAST relief that the job is behind me, and I also feel the loss of those bits of detritus, those little pieces of evidence of the life he lived. It's all so confusing and huge and beautiful and devastating.
This is beautiful, Tara. The format is so unique and compelling, and it adds so many layers to the experience of reading the poem. I found the centered, repeating title to be especially powerful and heartbreaking, the way it acts as a fulcrum between the two halves in tension, balancing them and binding them together.
Thank you for sharing such openhearted poems here. 🙏 You keep inspiring me to tackle some more formal poetic structures (which I find intimidating!).
Thanks so much for the feedback. I'm glad the structure worked for you. I really wasn't sure how successful it would be. It's a poem I worked and reworked several times. I was worried I'd handled it too much and turned it into a sticky mess. I definitely lost the ability to view it as a reader along the way - too many old versions crowding my memory. Even my husband had read it too many times. This is has been great to get some fresh eyes on it.
And re: form and structure, you could try a sestina (Only one of the most complicated forms. Ha! But hear me out...) Six stanzas of six lines each, and a final envoi (3-line stanza). Sestinas repeat the ending words of each line in the first stanza in a different order in each subsequent stanza. (here's the format: https://poets.org/glossary/sestina) But here's what I found kind of fun and puzzle-like about it: I picked my words and arranged them on a page in the right sequence and wrote up to them on each line. Like I could see where I had to end up and the challenge was getting there. I'll post the one I wrote sometime soon. And my daughter wrote a fabulous one about peaches, and a front porch, and a mailman. It's so great. Maybe I'll see if I can post hers too. Here's a link to a sestina so you can see how it works: https://allpoetry.com/poem/8493577-Sestina-by-Elizabeth-Bishop . Alternatively you can disregard this entire comment! I get a little too enthusiastic about poetic forms sometimes. 😬
Great to read that you are enjoying Don Patterson's writing! I'm kinda relieved too - I always feel that way when I recommend something and then hear back about it. 😅
You have shared such interesting writing also here. The formatting is fascinating and it is great that you have shared it as an image to preserve that.
Oh the timing of your post... my mom moved to a facility this week. My sister, being closest to her, is tasked with the sorting which I know she doesn’t want to do. From afar, it is so tempting to grasp bc you don’t want to lose what you can’t get back. Anyway, thank you for your honests posts and poetry.
Oh, Lisa, I’m so sorry you and your family are slogging through this right now. It’s rough and emotional and exhausting. I hope your mom’s transition to her new place is smooth. After the adjustment my mom did really well for a while with new friends and lots to keep her busy. Good luck with everything. Sending hugs.
Thank you. It’s good to know your mom did well with the transition - that gives me some hope. Independent living was fine, even the move to assisted as was ok. This move to skilled care feels different and more tenuous.
I know what you mean. My mom's most recent move was to memory care and felt different. I becomes so much more about quality of care/dignity/comfort than activities and new friends, although those this are still important. I hope your mom responds well, but, perhaps more importantly, I hop you and your family feel good about where she is. Peace of mind is priceless in difficult times.
"From afar, it is so tempting to grasp bc you don’t want to lose what you can’t get back"
Such a true statement, Lisa. I experienced the exact same thing when my dad died, but I didn't have those words. Reading them feels clarifying. Thank you for sharing. My thoughts are with you, your mom, and sister.
Thank you for the mention of February Poetry Adventure, Tara! I'm glad you are along for the Adventure and am looking forward to reading what you create. :)
This poem was really interesting. I read it as is and felt the speaker in it. That is often how I feel when I read concrete poems. I feel like I am in conversation with the poet. Then, I re-read just the left side all the way through and felt like I was hearing my own voice. I really enjoyed both versions. And the topic is a tough one to tackle. But those last five lines truly got me. So powerful. I think they will live inside my mind for a good long while.
Thanks so much for reading, and for the specific reflections on the voices in the poem. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness as a reader. And I can’t wait for February!
I have to ask about the 'I trained to be an archeologist' line. I guess I just want to know if that's what you studied? I'm intrigued. :)
Yes, my 30 year-old degree is in archaeology and women's studies. I started writing when my kids were young, and took my first creative writing class in the fall of 2022. I started dabbling in poetry maybe 10 years ago, but have started to take it more seriously in the last few years. The road is winding! And your question combined with a totally unrelated joke my husband made this morning sparked a new poem. So, it's not even February and already you're helping write poetry! 😀💙
That is so interesting, Tara. My degree was in anthropology* but I studied mostly social/cultural and linguistic anthropology. I never had the opportunity to delve into “stones and bones” as the moniker was at that time, but was profoundly interested in it. I don’t know what archaeological field you were in, so maybe this doesn’t apply. I wish I’d changed my major the minute one of my professors dismissed Ruth Benedict as a poet in a way that indicated true contempt.
I love this poem. The way you stack stanzas on the left and right side, as if removing bricks carefully and marking them by their placement in emotional and chronological time, is loving and yet precise. It’s as if you’re holding back tears by pulling back into methodology. Really well executed.
And yes, burn the letters. Some things are better left unspoken, or defiled by voyeurism. Let them go.
I did a lot of cultural anthropology classes, too. But my focus was archaeology. I primarily did fieldwork in the Northeast US, as well as a site mapping project. But I did spend a summer at a dig in southwestern Colorado back in high school. It's fascinating stuff, but then there's the downsides... stolen artifacts, human remains in museums, racist interpretation, sexism within the profession. I got pretty disillusioned by the end and never worked in the field. But I still find it so compelling.
Glad you liked the poem. It was a tricky one, fun to puzzle out but challenging too. I've been noodling on it for probably 3 years. Glad to have put it out in the world so I can forget about it for a while.
Glad you put it out there, too! Yes, the things that you mentioned, not considered an issue at the time. And the sexism was just appalling. Glad you retained the soul of a poet.
*my official degree. I was a “professional student” back when that was an affordable option.
Very cool! The path of life is so interesting. I always love hearing about people's journeys.
I had great dreams of being an archeologist after watching Indiana Jones when I was six. Then I learned it was mostly about digging and paperwork and less about crazy adventures and my interest cooled. 😂 However, I still find it fascinating!
And hooray for the poem inspiration! 😀
I read a story about Pompeii in 6th grade with a short “careers” section at the end about archaeologists. I was hooked. At age 16 I begged my parents to let me attend a high school field school in the Southwest. They hoped it would cure me. It didn’t.
Thanks for the poem and commentary. I think the presentation (whitespace, enjambment, whatever you want to call it) of a poem is certainly important. But, the level of salience varies from poem to poem. I love that a poem can be a work of auditory art, visual art, literature, and more. I just posted one myself with a strong tie to its textual form, so I used an image too.
As for the theme and content of your poem, I think I agree. Inherit some things, but let secrets lie.
Thanks so much for reading. I agree about a poem by poem approach. Ooh! I love the image idea. I posted a link to an ekphrastic poem I had published a few weeks ago. Is the image the inspiration for the poem? Or more of an accompanying visual? I'll check it out, for sure. And familial secrets, gah! I feel like I'm a magnet for them. They can get heavy. Appreciate the engagement. Cheers!
Ah, by image I just meant a screenshot of text formatted a particular way, like yours. A PDF would also accomplish this in theory, though perhaps not on Substack. I have also dabbled in doodling on a printed out poem to some interesting effect. And I love a good accompanying photo/drawing.
Looking forward to more! Love hearing about the process behind the poem.
I love the format of this poem. The way my eyes move across the page to capture each stanza, each grouping, has me feeling the effects of the dementia and the pain there, as well as the urgency and petition to "burn" those "letters" in a visceral sort of way. Bravo.
Kay, thank you so much for reading! Really appreciate the feedback.
I loved this poem, Tara, thank you for sharing it. I found the urgency of it -- the insistence -- beautiful and heartbreaking. I cleared out my parents’ house (my childhood home) and I did indeed find letters, but nothing that pained me in them. What pained me was gathering my Dad’s clothes and PJs, and all of his personal toiletries...it felt like breaking his privacy. That was hardest for me. The stuff I was never meant to see.
"The stuff I was never meant to see." That's it, isn't it? That sense that you are invading their privacy, especially if they were private people who kept a lot to themselves. My husband and kids helped me a lot. But the hardest were the times I had to work alone. Everything just felt so heavy. Thanks for the comment and letting me know about your experience. It always helps to feel less alone. 💙
Yes indeed. My Dad was very private. But on the flip side, the job was in some ways an archaeological dig through my own childhood, and helped me know my parents better. To see some of the things he kept, his quirky notes, it was an intimacy I was grateful for, a counterbalance to how much I missed him. Strangely, that made "clearing out" all the more bittersweet. I feel this VAST relief that the job is behind me, and I also feel the loss of those bits of detritus, those little pieces of evidence of the life he lived. It's all so confusing and huge and beautiful and devastating.
This is great Tara, such a compelling use of form; saved to read again later
This is beautiful, Tara. The format is so unique and compelling, and it adds so many layers to the experience of reading the poem. I found the centered, repeating title to be especially powerful and heartbreaking, the way it acts as a fulcrum between the two halves in tension, balancing them and binding them together.
Thank you for sharing such openhearted poems here. 🙏 You keep inspiring me to tackle some more formal poetic structures (which I find intimidating!).
Thanks so much for the feedback. I'm glad the structure worked for you. I really wasn't sure how successful it would be. It's a poem I worked and reworked several times. I was worried I'd handled it too much and turned it into a sticky mess. I definitely lost the ability to view it as a reader along the way - too many old versions crowding my memory. Even my husband had read it too many times. This is has been great to get some fresh eyes on it.
And re: form and structure, you could try a sestina (Only one of the most complicated forms. Ha! But hear me out...) Six stanzas of six lines each, and a final envoi (3-line stanza). Sestinas repeat the ending words of each line in the first stanza in a different order in each subsequent stanza. (here's the format: https://poets.org/glossary/sestina) But here's what I found kind of fun and puzzle-like about it: I picked my words and arranged them on a page in the right sequence and wrote up to them on each line. Like I could see where I had to end up and the challenge was getting there. I'll post the one I wrote sometime soon. And my daughter wrote a fabulous one about peaches, and a front porch, and a mailman. It's so great. Maybe I'll see if I can post hers too. Here's a link to a sestina so you can see how it works: https://allpoetry.com/poem/8493577-Sestina-by-Elizabeth-Bishop . Alternatively you can disregard this entire comment! I get a little too enthusiastic about poetic forms sometimes. 😬
Thank you for the links, Tara! I like your explanation of the puzzle-like approach to a format like this. I'll have to play around with it. :)
Great to read that you are enjoying Don Patterson's writing! I'm kinda relieved too - I always feel that way when I recommend something and then hear back about it. 😅
You have shared such interesting writing also here. The formatting is fascinating and it is great that you have shared it as an image to preserve that.
Oh the timing of your post... my mom moved to a facility this week. My sister, being closest to her, is tasked with the sorting which I know she doesn’t want to do. From afar, it is so tempting to grasp bc you don’t want to lose what you can’t get back. Anyway, thank you for your honests posts and poetry.
Oh, Lisa, I’m so sorry you and your family are slogging through this right now. It’s rough and emotional and exhausting. I hope your mom’s transition to her new place is smooth. After the adjustment my mom did really well for a while with new friends and lots to keep her busy. Good luck with everything. Sending hugs.
Thank you. It’s good to know your mom did well with the transition - that gives me some hope. Independent living was fine, even the move to assisted as was ok. This move to skilled care feels different and more tenuous.
I know what you mean. My mom's most recent move was to memory care and felt different. I becomes so much more about quality of care/dignity/comfort than activities and new friends, although those this are still important. I hope your mom responds well, but, perhaps more importantly, I hop you and your family feel good about where she is. Peace of mind is priceless in difficult times.
"From afar, it is so tempting to grasp bc you don’t want to lose what you can’t get back"
Such a true statement, Lisa. I experienced the exact same thing when my dad died, but I didn't have those words. Reading them feels clarifying. Thank you for sharing. My thoughts are with you, your mom, and sister.
Thank you