Jackson's Actions

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire. --Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) <

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. She's a writing-conference-junkie! See how fast people are to jump to judgment? What you need to know is that the whole time I was editing and publishing the work of other wonderful writers, I was also taking care of my aging mother, and not spending 10 minutes on my own work or my own self. That was a long haul, almost six years total, so if I am running around like a woman out of prison....dipping madly into the confluences of artistic talent on their annual galas, so be it. I'm having a BALL.

I have SO much to ponder, to talk about. This month (of January) has been SUCH a trip between Cape May (see earlier post) and DelRay Beach, Florida. I have internal and external fireworks going off on so many levels, that I don't know how to blog it all. But let me at least make an effort. But it's not going to be easy because there are so many LEVELs, so many people, so many things to explore....so I shall just throw it out there and hope it translates?

Weather
I was in Florida in November to visit a friend for Thanksgiving. A cold snap hit and the famous warm winter was non existent. This time, in January, the weather was in the 80's and I returned to Florida with new hope. Nope. The minute I arrived, the temps dropped to the 50's and I never saw the beach. Do I take the weather with me? When I drove home (that longgggg 12 hour drive to Asheville), I discovered some patches of unmelted snow on my back lawn. We were supposed to have a huge ice storm, blizzard and sleet today, but we had about 10 minutes of soft snow which melted (along with the old) and I guess the storms around us missed us.

Why am I wasting your time with weather? Simple. Because I lived in California for the past 20 years and NEVER even thought about weather -- only on the rare occasion that we had an earthquake over 5.0. So THIS whole East coast phenomena is new and truly exciting stuff for me. Indulge me?!

DORIANNE LAUX

Her fourth book of poems, Facts About the Moon, was published by W.W.Norton in 2006. She is also author of three collections of poetry from BOA Editions, Awake, (1990), What We Carry (1994) and Smoke (2000). Her work has appeared in the Best of the American Poetry Review, The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, and has been twice included in Best American Poetry. She was awarded a Pushcart Prize, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Laux is Professor and Director in the University of Oregon's Creative Writing Program.

Her name

Here's the real scoop. Everyone asks. How is her name pronounced? Low, Lux, Lox? I would have bet money because of the French spelling that it was "Low" but I was wrong! It is Alsace Lorraine/German/French and pronounced "Lox" (as in bagels and..)
It was her stepfather's name, and HE was adopted, so there is no attachment to it, other than the fact that she was famous before she thought about dropping it.

Her style

What can I tell you? She is the coolest, most together 55 year old woman I know. She is short, sexy, with long hair but gets away with no makeup and no apologies. She wears jeans, t-shirts, all "look" of Pacific Northwest grunge, and she's never far from a cigarette. She's absolutely fearless and gorgeous.


photo by Blaise Allen

Her writing workshop

I took a 2 hr. workshop with Kim Addonizio when I lived in Northern California, and I have always wanted to study with Dorianne Laux (Kim's collaborator on the spectacular "Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry"). I knew Dorianne's work long before Kim's, but fell in love with both of them way back when. I had to fight to get into this workshop, and was deeply indebted to Miles Coons (the wonderful director of the Palm Beach Poetry Festival) for finally securing me a place.

I got to spend approximately ten hours in workshop with Laux and a dozen very talented people. She had us writing so we could bring home new poems, but we also got to read and crit each other's work. She was supportive and gentle, but in the private one-on-one session that each of us had with her, we got incisive (and so quick!) critique from her on our work. I came away amazed at her passion, her depth and her kindness to us all, regardless of our level of work. Her intelligence and compassion are the most notable things about her after the beauty of her poetry. No pretenses. A self taught woman with a background (military brat) like mine, she just inspired the bejesus out of me!

At one point we had an incest poem followed by one of my "abuse" poems, which I mentioned wearily that I was tired of doing. Dorianne exploded into a passionate diatribe about how we should NEVER get tired of doing "those" kinds of poems. "THEY" don't want to hear them, so we think we're not supposed to write them, and she said "they" don't want books on VietNam either, but she could count on one hand the books done on VietNam and how we MUST continue to write our truth. It was so impassioned and inspired that I truly "got" the whole meaning of poetry from a very different depth. She also discussed how we "lead" our readers into subjects they don't want to read using our skills. I got a whole new insight into the value of "art" and its product versus what readers might think they want to read. Given the right art, they will follow you into the pits of hell.

Her Craft Lecture

"Getting Poems by Heart: The Marriage of Music and Meaning."

There were splendid events at this Festival. Readings by luminaries like Stephen Dunn, Mark Doty, Heather McHugh, Quincy Troupe, Alan Shapiro, Ellen Voigt, Thomas Lux. I shall speak more about these events in my next post, but right now I want to acknowledge what I considered the BEST of all the events, The Craft Talk by Dorianne Laux. The gist of what she had to say was about 'internalizing' the styles, music, and rhythms of poetry, most especially when you are beginning to write poetry, but then ever after, by simply memorizing poems that speak to you. She contends that they become part of you, once you commit them to memory, they are processed within you and are more accessible to you. She effortlessly recited several incredible poems (by other poets) by heart with such amazing feeling that Thomas Lux (in the audience) called out "You did that better than I ever could." It was HIS poem she recited, "Tarantulas on the Lifebuoys"

Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy
by Thomas Lux


For some semi-tropical reason
when the rain falls
relentlessly they fall

into swimming pools, these otherwise
bright and scary
arachnids. They can swim
a little, but not for long

and they can't climb the ladder out.
They usually drown—but
if you want their favor,
if you believe there is a justice,
rewards for not loving

the death of ugly
and even dangerous (the eel, hogsnake,
rats) creatures, if

you believe these things then
you would leave a lifebuoy
or two in your swimming pool at night.

And in the morning
you would haul ashore
the huddled, hairy survivors

and escort them
back to the bush, and know,
be assured that at least these saved,
as individuals, would not turn up

again someday
in your hat, drawer,
or the tangled underworld

of your socks, and that even—
when your belief in justice
merges with your belief in dream—
they may tell the others

in a sign language
four times as subtle
and complicated as man's

that you are good,
that you love them,
that you would save them again.

(Copyright © Thomas Lux)

Her reading of this poem was an EVENT in itself. Incredible. (No, please, slow down, go back and re-read this poem SLOWLY (as if you were memorizing it.) It's such a deep and poignant poem at its very heart.)

She recited other poems by heart too. We in the audience began to "feel" the value of having the music of poetry infused into our very selves. She recited a poem by Li-Young-Lee and told a wonderful story About Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, reciting the portion she had memorized. She was raconteur, performance artist, and teacher all wrapped up in one. It was a thrilling evening.


photo by Blaise Allen


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Labels: 2007, Laux, Poetry