Writing poetry keeps me sane. Literally. When the spaghetti noodles are piling and crusting to the floor, when the recorders are tooting the same pitch mercilessly, when pee is dribbling down the leg of the child I thought was long ago potty trained, poetry has been a friend.
Someday, I've thought, I would like to write novels, but motherhood, so far, hasn't been conducive. Poetry, on the other hand, I can do. I can spend half an hour sitting on the toilet lid, supervising bath time with my eyes while fashioning a line of verse with my brain. I can be in the kitchen stacking dishes into the dishwasher with my arms, back, shoulders, waist, and turning over that line till it is smooth as a pebble. I can whittle away hours pushing swings at the park, all the time tuning the perfect metaphor.
Anchor. Music. Remembrance. Medicine. Art. Call it what you will. Poetry, for this mother, pulls me from monotony and madness.
Purchase my new chapbook HERE
Dayna-
ReplyDeleteI purchased and read your chapbook, Mothering. The poems are beautiful! What I really loved was how clearly it came through that you love motherhood and that you put your children first. So many of the poems struck a chord with me, particularly, "Working Mom," and the idea that the narrator wondered what she missed while at work. I, too, am a mother poet. I practiced law for many years and missed my children a lot. Eventually, I was able to leave my practice and stay home with them while I wrote. It was the best gift to myself. I too have written and published chapbooks about mothering. The first is called "Into Your Light." It is about raising teenagers and watching them grow up and leave for college. Children are a wonderful inspiration for poetry at every stage! Don't worry, there will be time for those novels.
Regards,
Juli Palumbo