Interview
“Summer Kitchen” and “Fishes and Their
Fathers” poems in the July/r.kv.ry
by Joan Hanna
JH
Can you share a little about the inspiration for these poems?
Elizabeth
P. Glixman:
Inspiration for these poems started with images. Years ago I lived in an old
farmhouse circa 1800s. There was no central heating or plumbing. And of course
no air conditioning. This farmhouse like many others of that time had a summer kitchen. Summer kitchens
were in separate buildings away from the house or off the main kitchen. That way the whole house would not
heat up from the cook stove. Through the windows of this particular summer
kitchen in winter (the windows faced maybe a dozen apples trees) I could see
the bare branches of the trees at dusk against a purple, deep blue and pink
fading sky. There was snow on the ground as well as the deep forest of dark
green behind the trees. It was a stunning image that never left me. That image
floated around in my mind for years until I needed it to express a feeling I
was having about another experience.
On
page five In The Triggering Town, Lectures and Essays on
Poetry and Writing the author poet/ teacher Richard Hugo writes: “I
suspect that the true or valid triggering subject is one in which physical
characteristics or details correspond to attitudes the poet has toward the
world and himself.”
On
page fifteen he writes: “Your
triggering subjects are those that ignite your need for words.”
The
image of that apple orchard through the seasons and in winter in particular
ignited my need for words. But I had no poem to write at that time. Thirty
years later as I watched many of my older relatives pass away, I walked through
their homes before they were sold. Many objects including a blue milk glass shoe, the lamp that was left on with a timer for as long
as I could remember were taken from the house by strangers or other relatives.
No one was home anymore. The sense of place I had known for years was gone only
to live in memory. Just like the sky faded behind the apple trees I watched
from the kitchen in the farmhouse so do life’s season and situations change.
That image lying dormant in my mind woke up.
There
is more to the creation of the poem “The Summer Kitchen.”
The
couple that owned the farmhouse with the summer kitchen moved to a home
with electricity and central plumbing long before I arrived. The physical
challenges of the house with the summer kitchen were beyond them as they aged.
I understood this years ago. But now after years more of living I gained a greater
understanding of the emotional challenges, what it means to loose a home, a
person, a dream, your youth and be left with memories. Images, experience and
memories were like a perfect storm and became the poem, a larger poem then if I
had written one about the branches of the apple trees years ago.
The
unique and wonderful thing about creating poetry, art or fiction is that
everything that is stored in a poet, writer, or artist’s mind can be accessed
at any moment when it is needed to explore something. This usually happens when
a feeling or an experience is ready to be expressed. It ripens. Time
doesn’t matter. I think it is this way for everyone. Even if they do not create
works of art. Everyone has “ah ha” moments. Creative people are able to unite
all the elements and create something concrete to show others.
About
“Fishes and Their Fathers”
The
image of my vail tail beta fish Benny (he was an indigo blue) was the triggering moment for the poem “Fishes and Fathers.” That fish lived in a bowl
for over two years. I religiously cleaned that bowl weekly. I felt protective
of that small fish. I was his caretaker. Number one trigger: the image.
Number
two trigger:
I'd
seen many single mothers while working as a preschool teacher. I saw and heard
about the hardships they faced raising children alone. I saw their protective
instincts toward their kids and their frustrations. Since many meaningful conversations
with young children can happen when doing a task together, I
added an imagined conversation of a single mother and her daughter as they
watched the fish and cleaned the fish bowl to the poem. I gave the mother the burden of explaining to the child why her father was not coming home.
I didn’t clearly state if the father had died or left. The poem is about loss,
coping, adjustment so that aspect was not important to me. The reader can
decide and bring their own experience or imagination to the poem. I wanted to
show a woman alone (similar to the woman in the “Summer Kitchen” poem)
adjusting to change in her life, a different season in her life. And, show the
relationship of caring she had with her child.
JH:
I love your repetition of images in “Fishes and Their Fathers" like the
curve of the fishbowl linking to “the curve of my belly” and “the roundness of
your face.” Can you elaborate a little on this technique?
EPG:
Being a visual person I notice repeated patterns of line, shape and color in my
environment. In this poem I tied together images of a bowl, a belly a
face by their common denominator curves and roundness. These images
are more like metaphors or similes: the bowl is like a belly, the cheek is
like the bowl, the cheek ‘s curve, the belly’s roundness, the fish bowl are all
like each other.
Then
there are the associations. I put these images to good use in my work. I associated
the curve or roundness of the bowl with a pregnant woman’s belly and the curve
on the face with the touch of a hand on a cheek to the protective tender
maternal instinct. Curves are inherently feminine or organic. The mother was
protective of her child in the womb as she was now when her child asked her a
difficult question. The fish bowl was also pregnant in another way, it was the
catalyst for the child’s question. I hope this is not confusing.
Sometimes it is hard for me to explain "clearly" the workings
of my own poems.
JH:
Please share links to your website, publications or book links.
EPG:
Finishing Line Press will publish my latest chapbook, I Am the Flame,
about my female ancestors, in November.
Here
are links with comments and reviews about my other chapbooks
A
White Girl Lynching
Cowboy
Writes a Letter and Other Love Poems
The
Wonder of It All
I
Am the Flame book
cover blurbs to let readers know the overall theme of the poems.
In
poems rich with evocative details and surprising turns, Elizabeth
Glixman, through family stories, history, and an imagination brimming with
wonder and wisdom, defines her place among her female ancestors. She solidifies
her connection with them as she writes, "I am all these women / ... I am
their flame."
Later, she returns their "bones to the core of the earth / to the
heat" where, with her flame
of passion and newfound understanding, they become a "new orchestra / of
woman song. -Berwyn Moore
I
Am the Flame blazes
a trail of poems that looks back upon one's roots. Through insightful
vignettes, Glixman delves into the traditions and lives of her ancestors with
the inquiring mind of "a child entering life shocked by light /
remembering the womb from where we all came." A beautiful and riveting
collection. -Arlene
Ang
JH: Thank
you so much for sharing your thoughts on poetry, links to other chapbooks and
the lovely book blurbs for your upcoming chapbook, I Am The
Flame. Just one final question, what does recovery mean to you?
EPG:
For me recovery is the process of moving forward to a more balanced self or
life when you have been traumatized or affected adversely by experiences.
It can be a big event or addiction but doesn’t have to be. It only needs
to be a deeply felt experience or condition, one that has altered your life
kept you stuck. I think most of us are in some form of recovery from something
whether is a relationship that didn’t work, a death of a loved one or issues
with weight, lack of motivation, job loss, insomnia and unfullfillment (life
offers a lot of possibilities). The women in both poems have lost their husbands
and have to move forward. They are in recovery imo. In both poems the natural cycle of nature is
significant as it mirrors the changes in their and our lives.
