June Reads

My June reading concentrated on the poem; the reading and writing of poems. I decided to use this summer to take classes and read up on poetry. That is what I’m enjoying now. After last summer with the whole episode with MPGN, not feeling up to par and having such a deadness with my writing, I’ve felt poetry was where I wanted to spend my time. And I’m loving it, so happy that the writing, the excitement to write is coming back. I can never explain how empty and lost I felt without my writing. I never realized how much it was part of me not matter how busy and interested in other things I get. I need the writing to be whole and me.

As I’ve said before, I miss writing my novels, but I don’t think I’m up to the many faceted research and organization of that just yet. Poetry is a wonderful training ground and I’m still keeping my hand in essays and short stories. But I want to get back to writing the novel. I have so many ideas in my head, down on paper. Some I think really good ideas and publishable. Soon…very soon.

As we vacation in June I also haven’t had a huge amount of time to read. I hope for July that will change, but I am reading a book right now that is taking a lot of time.

May Out West: Poems of May Swenson by May Swenson: I read an article in the Ogden Standard Examiner, maybe a year or two ago about May Swenson. It was the first I heard of her though she was from around my neck of the woods, as they say. The article included a few poems and I really enjoyed them, so when I saw this book I bought it. For me, it was worth it.

Her work is wonderful and this book about the West had a wonderful sense of place and spoke of a love of land and nature. You knew she loved the West and had a unique way of seeing it.

A Magical Clockwork: The Art of Writing the Poem by Susan Ioannou: This book went along with a workshop I’m taking, but I wanted to read the book first, then go through the lessons. I’m glad I did, too. The book is a wonderful guide to the nuances of poetry and how to bring them into your own work. The writer is Canadian and proud to be. She has tons of illustrations to describe the tools necessary for writing good poetry, mostly Canadian poets. I loved that. I would likely never read any of them. I loved seeing the differences in their writing compared to American poets.

I’ve always thought seeing things from another point of view, even if I don’t agree, adds another dimension to my writing. Every chapter had new insight into the way to write a poem. I have no doubt that what I learned will improve my work.

A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver: Okay, I’ll admit it. I read this and the previous book simultaneously. Some would ask why, but I do that all the time. Have more than one book going. This time it works perfect. The two books complemented each other. A Poetry Handbook was mostly about craft, which I really need help with. Oliver also had wonderful simple words to urge you on. Words that are often needed when struggling with putting down on paper what you hear in your heart.

A favorite quote was the last sentence in the book: “For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.” Maybe that sentence explains it all—the way I feel about writing poetry right now—I just frankly need it.

Crazy Woman Creek: Women Rewrite the American West edited by Linda M. Hasselstrom, Gaydell Collier, and Nancy Curtis: These are the same editors of Leaning into the Wind, which I thoroughly enjoyed and loved. I think about many of the essays and poems I read in Leaning into the Wind. I was so hoping Crazy Woman Creek would be as good. I think, maybe, it was better. These essays and poems are snippets of life, western life, but life in general and they make me feel not so alone. They make me feel such pride in being a woman.

There is such strength in us, such wisdom and I am part of that sisterhood. I got so inspired when I read this book, I couldn’t wait to write. I can’t say enough, but to say I can’t wait to read the third book, Woven on the Wind: Women Write about Friendship in the Sagebrush West. I think any woman would love these three books, but there is a special something for anyone who loves the West and who live there.