Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Whimsy-Colored Glasses

Today is a busy Fat Tuesday in the blog: exercise class, ekphrasis class, housecleaning, hosting of book group tonight. So, mainly, I will link you to an interview in Adanna Journal, where I talk about poetry, seriously but through the lenses of my whimsy-colored glasses.

Roughly the rosy, pinky, orange of this morning's sunrise.

By whimsy, I mean you'll find the occasional musical-comedy lyric + my kids rolling their eyes. By "seriously" I mean, I do try to answer the real questions about poetry, poetry process, avoiding sentimentality, and being all that you can be in the army of women writers in the world. And, as the genie reminds Aladdin when he's trying to  talk to Jasmine ("Bee yourself," in the guise of a bee), I try to bee myself.

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.

--Emily Dickinson

8 comments:

Sandy Longhorn said...

Wonderful response to the sentimentality question. Thanks for the Jim Harrison quote. Lovely.

As for the bee, that is my all-time, #1, favorite Dickinson poem. So comforting to see it here today.

Marcoantonio Arellano (Nene) said...

Great interview. It's nice to know that your a 'whole' person and not just height, hair, skin color. It's great that you touched upon being the sexual beings that we are (Miquel de Uno Muno). As a writer primarily but also as a woman, you have not been totally begrudging or influenced/biased by the prejudices of our historically paternalistic traditions in all cultures and writ.
Oh, did I forget to say that it's nice that you've been exposed to the other america, Latin America.
It's sometimes of an advantage being bi-cultural in that our inherent make-up has it's differences.
It's nice to get to know more about you from this interview.
Thanks for sharing

Maureen said...

Kathleen, a great interview. You come across with such clarity and openness, and with great love for words spun into poetry. Congratulations again on your first-place win at Adanna. So well-deserved!

Kathleen said...

Thanks, all! Stopping in briefly to publish your comments. I hope I have a chance to respond later. Off to teach!

Kim said...

I will Bee at book group. I did not have a chance to read the interview but I shall do that TooMorrow. (code word podelet, where one might go to make out with Jean Luc Picard.)

Kathleen said...

Bee-you-tiful, Kim J Kimmel. Whimsy in action!

Hannah Stephenson said...

I loved this interview, Kathleen.

Now....how do you use scissors? Do you cut apart your poems? I'm curious!

Kathleen said...

Thanks, Hannah!