In this episode we discussed three very different poems by Oregon poet Lorna Rose, all three resulting in juicy conversation and resulting in three tie-breakers (none of them involving the same voting configurations amongst our team!). This was a big first for us. The episode was kicked off by a larger discussion (prompted by the first poem) around aspects of cultural appropriation and touched on facets of trauma and language. This wide-ranging discussion and the split in our voting pointed to the power and ambiguity of various elements in these poems. In the end, a tie-breaking editor helped deliver two of these ...
In this episode we discussed three very different poems by Oregon poet Lorna Rose, all three resulting in juicy conversation and resulting in three tie-breakers (none of them involving the same voting configurations amongst our team!). This was a big first for us. The episode was kicked off by a larger discussion (prompted by the first poem) around aspects of cultural appropriation and touched on facets of trauma and language. This wide-ranging discussion and the split in our voting pointed to the power and ambiguity of various elements in these poems. In the end, a tie-breaking editor helped deliver two of these poems into PBQ’s pages! Have a listen!
Note: This episode was recorded in December 2021, so there will be a bit of time travel involved.
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Wilbur Records, who kindly introduced us to the artist is A.M.Mills whose song “Spaghetti with Loretta” now opens our show.
At the table: Kathleen Volk Miller, Marion Wrenn, Jason Schneiderman, Alex Tunney
Absentee voter for the tie-breakers: Samanatha Neugebauer
Links to things we discuss you might like to check out:
"Declaration" by Tracy K. Smith, an erasure poem of the Declaration of Independence
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147468/declaration-5b5a286052461
"Native Son" by Richard Wright
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1992/07/20/the-hammer-and-the-nail
"Appropriate: A Provocation" by Paisley Rekdal
https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324003588
"How-To" by Anders Carlson Wee and retraction by The Nation
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/how-to/
"Inside Kate Winlset's Mare of Easttown" Pennsylvania Accent, Vanity Fair
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/04/kate-winslet-mare-of-easttown-accent
Lorna is a Pacific Northwest writer and speaker. Her narrative nonfiction and poetry have been recognized by Pacific Northwest Writers Association and the Oregon Poetry Association, and have appeared or are forthcoming in Scary Mommy, Jellyfish Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Writers Resist, and elsewhere. She's also a speaker and workshop leader. When not wrangling her two small children, she fantasizes about being interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air.
Author website
Leaving Libya
I flood my lungs
with the wet stench of fish and bodies and fuel.
Dinghy motor whines against the night.
Salt air grinds my skin ‘til it’s threadbare and
there’s no sitting since leaving Sabratha.
Body clenches tight to its bones
and shrill muscles shriek and weep and lock up.
Damp t-shirt clings to goosebumped flesh under a
tattered orange life jacket. But what life?
Next to me a shaking woman holds her boney baby
and cries. She has shit herself.
Behind me a man mumbles and mumbles for water.
His eyes roll hollow,
mouth slacks open.
From his breath
I smell the thick stink of rot,
the gray smell of
forgotten humanity.
Lights of the Italian coastline appear and
my heart races,
vision blurs.
From somewhere behind there’s a jolt.
Yelling.
Floor tilts.
And the lights of Lampedusa go black.
Surviving the Rush
No music plays in
the general store in Circle, Alaska,
which is full of mukluks and
Wonder Bread.
Villagers fish the Yukon,
memorize river rise,
bet on
breakup.
Long ago miners arrived from Outside
to sift, chip
rip fortunes
from earth.
Stilts were drilled into permafrost and
structures were imposed and
all bustle and
rage.
Then claims fell dry and
no patience and Circle started to
wither.
The locals
picked up pieces of buildings, tried to
heal the
pock-marked ground.
Today a tourist’s crisp dollar might
mean something,
except the locals would have to tolerate
the perfumey tourist.
Villagers fish the Yukon,
memorize river rise,
bet on breakup. The soil smells of
fool’s gold and blood.
