A Toad's Favo(u)rite~ Like the Singing Coming off the Drums: Moving to the rhythm of Sonia Sanchez

I honestly can't remember when I first read Sonia Sanchez. What I remember was that I was immediately drawn to her work. The sounds and rhythms resonated with me. When I read more about her, poet and activist, my attraction deepened. 

Sanchez's work is conversational. Her vocabulary is ordinary, and the lines read in the way you wish you could speak: rolling beautiful yet natural rhythms off your tongue. I don't know what came first, but it is clear that I have an affinity for sound, and the sound of Sanchez's lines feel good on my tongue. There is internal rhythm without rhyme. There is an undercurrent of sensuality and the erotic in her work. Like a good love poem, writing the erotic well requires skill. Sanchez is a good place to start if  you appreciate the sensual.

Novice poets and readers alike have mistakenly believed that Ms. Sanchez's short poems are casual, lacking depth and form. The misconception has often lead to attempts at emulating her style without understanding the craft and effort necessary to write short, distilled poetry. I know I made that mistake.

While her work is accessible, a closer examination reveals the nuances of device and form. She is best known for her take on Asian forms including haiku, tanka and senryu. Devoted readers also know her narrative, longer pieces, the most celebrated, Does Your House Have Lions?, a narrative poem about her brother's battle with AIDS and how his family coped with his death and their loss.

In the late 90s and again in the early 2000s, I met the poet. Each time, she graciously took

the time to talk with me. During our first meeting, she told me why craft matters. She said when students take a course with her, they are required to write twelve poems in twelve different forms. Twelve forms in twelve weeks. In her class, the emphasis is skill. Talent can't be taught. In the classroom, the student learns how to read and write poetry. The expectation isn't great poetry written, rather the aim is to cultivate an informed, learned appreciation for poetry.

On one source I read, the author writes that Ms. Sanchez rejected standard English and established poetry convention, and that's true. That was early in her career when her work and her rejection was aligned her with social-political life. What the article failed to acknowledge is that while Sanchez rejected convention, she did not advocate uneducated arrogance being passed for art or activism.

The poet/activist has enjoyed a long, prolific career. Readers have witnessed a shift in perspective in her body of work. Experiences shape what and how we write. I believe art is organic, a breathing thing that continues to evolve.

I invite you to explore the work of Sonia Sanchez. I've included multiple hyperlinks and a short bibliography. Below is one of her most celebrated works and my first favorite:

Poem #3

I gather up

each sound

you left behind

and stretch them

on our bed.

each nite

I breathe you

and become high.

Bibliography

Homecoming, Broadside Press (Detroit, MI), 1969.
We a BaddDDD People, with foreword by Dudley Randall, Broadside Press (Detroit, MI), 1970.
Ima Talken Bout the Nation of Islam, TruthDel, 1972.
Love Poems, Third Press (New York, NY), 1973.
A Blues Book for Blue Black Magical Women, Broadside Press (Detroit, MI), 1973.
I’ve Been a Woman: New and Selected Poems, Black Scholar Press (Sausalito, CA), 1978.
homegirls and handgrenades, Thunder’s Mouth Press (New York, NY), 1984.
Under a Soprano Sky, Africa World (Trenton, NJ), 1987.
Continuous fire: A Collection of Poetry, Inkbook, 1994.
Autumn Blues: New Poems, XX, 1994.
Wounded in the House of a Friend, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 1995.
Does Your House Have Lions?, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 1997.
Like the Singing Coming off the Drums: Love Poems, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 1998.
Shake Loose My Skin: New and Selected Poems, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 1999.
Homegirls and Handgrenades, White Pine Press, 2007.
Morning Haiku, Beacon Press, 2010.

Links:
Poets.org
Sonia Sanchez
Afropoets.net
Poetry Foundation

Interview with Corey Rowley

Interview with Corey Rowley

Greetings, Toads and passing visitors to our little pond full of dragonflies, lily pads, teeming microscopic life and poetry. This is hedgewitch (Joy Ann Jones.) As you know, the amazing and talented Isadora Gruye recently interviewed me here, and so now its my turn to take up the journalistic pad and pen and interview a fellow Toad. My choice was the free-spinning disc jockey that runs the blog Mexican Radio, poet and writer Corey Rowley, also known by the sobriquet Herotomost. He good-naturedly put up with my amateurish probings into what makes him tick, and provided me with more than a few nostril-beverage-sprays as I read through his answers. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, but before we go there, I want to show the kind of serious gift that Corey has as well, so here’s a link and an excerpt from a poem he shared for Open Link Monday this week, that is one of the best I’ve read in many moons:

from Ashes, by Corey Rowley:

The tell tale thud of certain and excruciating circular death

The air was sucked from the universe one missing breath after another

The smell of ozone and radiation intoxicated, clearing her mind

Mixed sharply with the taste of candied fear, poured from beautiful desperation

Ashes to ashes my father

Drink in the possibilities of fate

Loosen your grip on dear children

And do not temper justice out of emotional convention

She sat on the stoop, eyes closed and dreaming in harsh pastel colors

She devoured the emotional electricity of the city on the brink

A million children asking why, shut up and let me in quickly

Focus dear ones on the beauty of the still wired moment, conscious death…

~*~

If you missed reading this in its entirety l heartily recommend doing so whenever you need your next poetry fix.

Alright, now for everything else you ever wanted to know about Corey,(or at least some) but were afraid to ask:

~*~

Joy: Well, I warned you at first contact that my number one question was going to be about your screen name, Herotomost. I’m curious where it came from and why you chose it—song line, wild inspiration, pulling puppies out of burning buildings, or what?

Corey: I was given that name by the government.... lol...  yeah right. Actually it sounds a little cocky and I have it on my license plate of my Camaro, but actually it's a bit more low key than that.  I spent a few years in the Air Force and had a friend from Jamaica who would call me Caesar  (my initials are CSR.) There is a Public Enemy song that has the lyrics “Elvis was a hero to most” and he would see me every day and sing to me “Caesar was a hero to most”.  Although a very racially motivated song, he never meant it in that way. It kind of stuck with a few of my friends and now I use it as a moniker online when they let me.

  

J: Thanks for satisfying my burning curiosity and general nosiness on that one—but I have more! There’s not a lot of bio on your page—is there anything you’d like us to know about yourself, your life, your day job, your past or your hopes and dreams for the future? Or wild fantasies, maybe?

C: Weeeelllllll...I have been in the Environmental and Health and Safety business for about 27 years and currently work as an estimator for an asbestos, lead and mold abatement company located in Phoenix.  I am married with four lovely (most times) children.  When I'm not writing, I am traveling, riding my road bike, drinking at a few of out favorite watering holes...finding new places to eat.  Pretty normal stuff I think. I wish I could give you a swashbuckling story about how I was a hero bit by the gambling bug and forced into a life of prostitution...but.... no such luck.

J: Oh well, not everyone can have their dream job, eh? I see you began your blog about the same time I did mine. How has it worked out for you-- helped your writing, changed your perspective, pleasant escape or nagging duty?

C: I started online writing on Writers Cafe like so many have.  That site has the best set up but the most problems. I started my blog and hardly did anything with it at first because it takes work to get traffic.  Wasn't sure how to do that.  When all of my friends and the best writers started leaving the WC to take care of their blogs, I kind of followed suit with a little help from Kerry.... I know we all do, but I love me some Kerry O’Connor. She has done a lot for me and it is a really big honor to be her friend. She is definitely one of the ones that if I ever get a group of people together from around the world for an online writing cocktail hour, I will pay for her to fly in.  So, I still am not linked to enough other sites, Toads and Poets United is all...so I have some work to do. You all seem to have the blog thing down better than I do.

J: I have to agree about Kerry. She is an amazing force of creativity and support here. Blogging is all about interactions, and it takes those to get it really moving I think, especially for propelling the pen. At your place, I’ve noticed you write both prose and poetry with equal fluency. Which is your first love, and which “the other woman?”

C: If I weren’t so lazy about writing, I would make sweet love to prose every day.  I love characterization and dialogue that kills, throw in a little setting.... yeah baby. Poetry is an immediate satisfaction thing for me. Short, sweet and I can get a novel down in four stanzas.  If you notice, my poetry is a compressed version of my prose really. If there is a form challenge you don't usually see me participating.... don’t like to work that hard. Two of my favorite online prose writers (they are awesome at poetry too) are Shawnacy and Isadora Gruye. Izy reads some of my poetry and curses me for not writing my thoughts down in prose form because they are a bit heavy handed for poetry sometimes. Those two girls kill prose. I seriously don't understand why a few of the people around these parts aren't hawking books on Oprah...cuz they rock hard.

I guess the bottom line is, I have had some instructors and my wife who beg me to write prose.... but prose is like a full time job at the Piggily Wiggily and poetry is like hanging out on the corner at the drug store with my friends smoking cigarettes and playing kissy face. It's just fun.

  

J: For me, prose is more of a full time job cleaning out septic tanks by hand for minimum wage, but I totally agree about poetry. One of the things I like about your writing of both sorts is that there’s a very genuine and intense feel to it, with many of your topics upbeat, and others quite dark. To you, does it seem tilted either way, or that you are balancing both, or do you just write from your gut what you happen to be feeling at a given time?

C: I can't help but be true to my emotions when I am writing.  My wife says we have gender role reversal going on where I am the emotional little bitch.  You will know how I am feeling and my writing is no exception.  My mom says I write best when I am depressed or my life is in the shambles...of course she doesn’t say this to me, she says it to my wife.  I naturally trend to the dark, but I love the romance of life.  There are things in this life that can cause you to feel so good.... and unfortunately a lot of those things revolve around love and it pains me to see so many jaded people.  Jaded because of past experience...but hey, each to their own I guess, but as far as I know this is my one and only go around on this plane...and I am going to squeeze every drop of love and romance I can out of it, regardless of what happened to me yesterday.

  

J: Have to say, I like the way your mind works on that whole 'get it while you can' thing. Also I think your mom nailed it for a lot of us. Sometimes depression or a black mood is what digs up the deepest stuff. Do you feel that you have any sort of philosophy about your work, about where you want to go with it?

C: I'll keep this one shorter, sorry. I just like to write really cool stuff...stuff other people want to read.  I don't want the people of Toads or anywhere else to feel like just because I read them they have to read me.  If you don't care for it...for heavens sake...don't waste the two minutes of your life to read it...I am OK with it, this is the no guilt zone (shit, there goes my reviews...wooohoooo!!! He gave us permission to ignore him!....lol)

J: I doubt you’ll be ignored much by anyone who’s read more than two of your sentences. Do you have a favorite poem or piece of writing, one you feel particularly invested in? If only one thing you’ve written could be chosen, which one would you like to see published?

C: My longest prose work to date is called “E” and Me and it is on my blog. I wrote it seventeen years ago and to me still stands as my favorite.  It needs some massaging and I have said that for seventeen years.  I have submitted it once or twice but have not been that aggressive with it.  If anyone cares to read it, be my guest. I haven't posted it yet on Mondays because it is so long and I don't want Susie or Marian kicking my ass because they wake up on Monday, start reviewing and then come across that longish piece of crap.  You girls behave.... or that’s all I will post is long prose.... you think you hate me now...just wait till I post my rewrite of Roots!

J: I read a few paragraphs just now, and I can see why you feel it stands as something seminal to your work. The few sentences I read were packed with taut language and emotional hooks. What about a fave poem?

C: If I had to pick a favorite poem from what I have posted on my blog, I would pick North Beach Rain, but I just had that on Monday Toads a couple weeks age.  After that, probably the first one I posted on my blog called Float On, which like Ashes has a pretty decent and sweeping scope and a couple of lines that make me all tingly when I read them.  I have so much work that I still have to transfer form the WC on to my blog, I know compared to others the cupboard is a little bare...but its coming.... head for the hills by the Gods...its coming.

J: Now I have a new favorite—“..And when I can let gossamer words float like petals on the surface/I will taste that gaze and the North Beach rain.”—yeesh! I notice the name of your blog is taken from a Wall of Voodoo song. How important is music to you, and what kinds do you consider ‘yours’? Do you play an instrument?

C: Yeahhhh!!!!! I love that song and the remake of the song by Authority Zero.  I also love Mexico...would live there and may live there some day, at least part time. I wrote a poem that is on my blog called MyTown  which is a tribute poem to Stephen Morath's painting “Sunset Overdone” and to the song Mexican Radio. It’s one in a series of three poems that are tributes to his paintings and different songs.  I play the guitar but not very well.  I have a few songs that I have written and recorded that I may post on my website soon, they are loooovvveeee songs for my sweet so if I do, try not to throw up a little in your mouth...lol. Kerry has heard them, she still hasn't recovered. I have way more guitars than talent.....

 

J: IMHO, it's pretty hard not to love Mexico if you're alive and sucking air, and there’s always room in this world for another love song, (or love poem,) so I say go for it. Is there anything I haven’t asked that you’d like the Toad universe to know?

C: I love them dearly and want to thank them for including me...(ha, there’s the guilt thing again, how can you not read my stuff after that!) I would like to thank them for writing their hearts and sharing. Sometimes that’s not easy.  Thanks for letting me be myself...I know there are some who don't like the darker stuff with curses and all, but no one has ever called me out and asked me to shut my dirty mouth...I like that.

J: I think that's called mutual respect, something I also appreciate about this place.

~*~ 

To finish up here, I liked what Isadora did in my interview with the closing quick questions so here are a few in that style:

Are you a pet person? If so, dog, cat or piranha?

No pets, we travel too much and it wouldn't be fair to them. Nothing against them though.

Favorite way to relax after a grueling day?

Read some Toads, mess with my guitar, drink with my honey and my friends, throw down a hot mess of a poem, ride my bicycle fast and dangerously.

Some favorite authors or poets?

Stephen King, Steinbeck, John Irving, Rudolfo Anaya, Vonnegut, Whitman, Dylan Thomas you all know, this list goes on and on and on.

Politics: Exercise in Futility or Blood sport?

Extremely disappointing and frustrating...but I will remain ever hopeful that some day we as a species will figure it out.  My gut says that our inability to play nice is inherent and accepting it would be better than fighting it...I don't know, blah, blah, blah.

Rhyme or free verse?

Free Verse with rhyming refrains....Wooohoooo!!!!!!

This was my favorite question Izy asked, so I’m passing it on:

What are your three favorite words?

“Are you awake?” lol....rowrrrrrrrr

The thing that most ticks you off about life?

Not living up to my potential.

The thing that most gives you hope?

My children, my friends that write the truth, the fact that apple will come out with a new product that I have to have every couple of months. Yeah....

~*~

Thanks, Corey. It’s been a pleasure and/or total blast getting to know you. I hope everyone will browse through some of these links to your work and get a feel for the amazing talent you have.

Photo Credits: (c) Corey Rowley, 2012


And here's the original song, Mexico! Allow a few seconds for the soundcloud clip to load...

Kenia Fascinante

Greetings, Toad-kind. 
Over the past week, I have had the extreme pleasure and privilege of digging in to the amazing mind of the gorgeously gifted Kenia Cris. I am relatively new here at the Imaginary Garden, but her work struck me immediately. Poems like this one, titled simply #436, :

The Poet

I walk

When I’d rather float in space,

People live like comets

And die like stars.

Sometimes I feel as old

As the universe,

The road I have not taken

Also showing

On my footprints.

speak in a voice that is both knowing and powerfully pensive; yet contain such vibrance and life. Kenia, your work is fabulous and it was such a joy getting to know you and asking you all sorts of prying questions. 

So i'll step aside and let Kenia tell you a little bit about herself.

I live with my parents, a sister and four dogs in a non-coastal state in southeastern Brazil. I’ve spent most of my life traveling places in paper boats inside all sorts of books once I had no free unlimited access to the sea!  I’m 33, a Gemini and single. I have a degree in Education and I’ve just applied for a post-graduate degree in Psychology of Education. I’ve been teaching English as a foreign language for 12 years. I love reading and learning things about the world and people. My main interests are writing, photography, surrealism in art and literature, cinema, anthropology and philosophy.

How unbelievably cute is baby Kenia!?

I would literally like to talk with you about EVERY SINGLE THING you just said (Mental note to self: have all sorts of fascinating conversations with Kenia very soon), but as our time here is somewhat limited, I'll ask you the question that I most love to ask people. What was the first book  you read that changed the way you thought about the world? That tore your sky to pieces and showed you a new bigger brighter one that you hadn't even imagined? And how old were you at the time? 

When I was a teenager, I had a friend who challenged me to read all the books in the school library and we did it together. I’ve read Flaubert’s ‘Bouvard andPécuchet’ then, I was 15 and it was the first book that opened the sky for me.  It’s the story of two  middle-aged men who happen to sit on the same park bench one day and end up becoming really good friends and their adventures and discoveries in landscape gardening, biology, geology, architecture, history, politics, philosophy, music, and urban planning, just to mention a few. I’ve always had great pleasure in learning new things and this book felt like encouragement.  

Such an encouragement. It's an amazing thing to feel that one is understood by a book. But let me get to the things I'm dying to know. If I understand correctly, English is not your first language. Yet your command of it is exceptional. How and where did you learn?

That is right, my first language is Portuguese. I had to teach myself English because I couldn’t afford studying abroad or taking English classes here. I’ve always loved words, and dictionaries were my first learning resources (back when I started studying by myself there was no Internet!).

In 2000, I passed the Cambridge Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English, it was the year I started teaching.

Because I had no formal education in English I still make many mistakes, but I try my best, I read a lot and I study everyday. 

The Poet's inspiring bookshelf

That is completely inspiring. Learning on your own is such a daunting thing, but so rewarding. How has knowing two languages as intimately as you do contributed to your worldview?

My friends and students think the advantages of knowing English are two: Being able to understand song lyrics, and skipping movie subtitles! English has always been about understanding the world to me. I have access to originals in my areas of interest (I read many books much before they are translated, not to mention the ones which won’t get a translation to my language) and the News; I happen to be able to talk to real people whose life experience are amazing lessons.  

It's so incredible how speaking another language allows your world to expand and becomoe so wide. Do you feel that the two languages speak differently? Is there one that you prefer to write in? to speak in? or perhaps, are there times when you prefer one over the other?

They definitely do. I start writing in English most of the times, but now and then I find something that doesn’t seem to have any depth in the language. Then I say it in Portuguese only at Coeur de Poétesse. When it’s the other way round, I say it in English only at The Sky Clears.

Not that two aren't enough, but do you speak any other languages? Or have plans to learn any others? 

Apart from English, I also speak Italian. I can read in Spanish, too. I’ve had Latin classes in College and it was lots of fun to me! I’ve studied Hungarian (just because I was very curious about the structure of the language!) for a year, but one needs much more time to actually learn it, it’s hard! I would love to learn Hungarian, German and French.

How long have you been writing?

I’ve been writing poetry for 3 years and a half. My thoughts on poetry have been mainly influenced by the Turkish poet Orhan Veli Kanık, whose works were introduced in my life when I was 20 by a Turkish boyfriend. After Orhan Veli, I met Pablo Neruda, David Ignatow, Alejandra Pizarnik, Vera Pavlova, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Alexander – poets whose words speak loud to my soul and inspire me profoundly.

The poet and her best friend.

 A list of Masters; though each have a very distinct voice. What about your voice? What is your goal with your work?

I’m still ripening poems in the middle of the night. Sometimes I think I’d like to have a book published but poetry in books is not very free. I’d rather see my poems fly and fill people’s eyes and hearts with all sorts of good feelings. Words that can’t touch people in a positive way are not worth being said or written.

 What a beautiful idea. Do you have a philosophy of writing? or of poetry in general?

Writing to me is all about feeling and poetry has to speak to my heart with easy words. I don’t write form poetry and it’s the reason why I called my main blog Poesia Torta (Crooked Poetry). I’m most likely to enjoy free writing, my favorite readings (and I call them my Fantastic Four) being:  Andreas Andersson (Love as poetry), Andrew Phillips (Pied Hill Prawns), Ash Brones (Perilously Precocious), and Marian Kent (Runaway Sentence).

The fantastic four! Brilliant. So, as writers, we're always out feeling for the lightning. Where do you find inspiration? And what does it feel like to you?

A Brazilian poet called Manoel de Barros has this poem I like very much that begins like this:

All the things whose value can be

disputed over a long-distance spitting challenge

are good subject for poetry.

A man who only owns a comb

and a tree

is good subject for poetry.

Inspiration is everywhere. Sometimes it’s on my way and I stumble it. Sometimes it’s prompted and challenges me. I just wish I had more time to write.

Ask her to tell you the story of her tattoo.

'Time' is the ugliest of four-letter-words. But when the inspiration comes, do you have any particular rituals you do when writing? A specific place you like to go? Certain music you listen to? A favorite snack? Do you just pull up a page and start? … let us in on your process.

I usually write in bed at night, when the house is asleep, but I also write on the bus while commuting to work – I get good insight from what I see on my way to work. I always have paper and pen with me because you never know when a good line will become a good line for a poem!

I like listening to Beirut, Explosion in the sky, The Cinematic Orchestra and A Weather while writing.

When I have too many things going on my mind, I start writing by doing surrealist automatism - it helps to declutter my head and write better poetry.

Can you explain surrealist automatism? 

Surrealist automatism is spontaneous writing, practiced without conscious aesthetic or moral self-censorship. André Breton (the founder of surrealism) and Philippe Soupault wrote together the first automatic book, Les Champs Magnetiques in 1919, but Breton’s most significant theoretical work about automatism is  The Automatic Message.

Alastair Brotchie has the best description of the technique in his book Surrealist Games:

“Sit at a table with pen and paper; put yourself in a 'receptive' frame of mind, and start writing. Continue writing without thinking of what is appearing beneath your pen. Write as fast as you can. If, for some reason, the flow stops, leave a space and immediately begin again by writing down the first letter of the next sentence. Choose this letter at random before you begin, for instance, a 't', and always begin this new sentence with a 't'. Although in the purest version of automatism nothing is 'corrected' or re-written the unexpected material produced by this method can be used as the basis for further composition. What is crucial is the unpremeditated free association that creates the basic text.”

What a great exercise. To wrap this up, do you have a favorite quote or inspiration you'd like to share?

I’d like to share this beautiful poem written by Jayne Relaford Brown which reminds me of the woman I want to grow up to be.

Finding her here

I am becoming the woman I’ve wanted,

grey at the temples,

soft body, delighted,

cracked up by life

with a laugh that’s known bitter

but, past it, got better,

knows she’s a survivor –

that whatever comes,

she can outlast it.

I am becoming a deep

weathered basket.

I am becoming the woman I’ve longed for,

the motherly lover

with arms strong and tender,

the growing up daughter

who blushes surprises.

I am becoming full moons

and sunrises.

I find her becoming,

this woman I’ve wanted,

who knows she’ll emcompass,

who knows she’s sufficient,

knows where she’s going

and travels with passion.

Who remembers she’s precious,

but knows she’s not scarce –

who knows she is plenty,

plenty to share.

'Who remembers she’s precious, 

but knows she’s not scarce –' that is a difficult balance. Thank you so much for sharing your vision, and  for opening your door to us today. 

Kenia can be found at her main blog 

http://poesiatorta.blogspot.com/

as well as at 

http://diariosdefilosofia.blogspot.com/,

http://theskyclears.blogspot.com/

http://aschoolattheendoftheworld.blogspot.com/

Kenia is also a photographer, (as well as a philosopher, poet, linguist, teacher, NaNoWriMo novelist, and all-around person of inspiration) and her work can be seen 

here: http://www.behance.net/crookedlittlegirl

and here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenia_cris/

Posted by Shawnacy