"Barren Trinkets" stems from a time when it was easier to write this poem than to tell loved ones we were failing in our attempt to have a family. Though it's been almost a decade since this poem’s first draft, it also feels like that experience never ended, since its after-effects linger. Thanks to the Cincinnati Museum Center for the cave pearl and the 1980s candy shop for the necklace.
Lisa Ampleman on "Barren Trinkets" |
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Lloyd Wallace on Jane Huffman's Public Abstract
"Here, poetry is not just a sign of decay—or, to use a kinder word, transformation—but is actually the decaying agent itself. If poetry “breaks out: like mold on plums,” it is because the act of writing poetry is not an empty one. You have to fill the poem with yourself. The poem takes your life from you, and, in the case of a published manuscript like this one, hands it to other people."
via WEST BRANCH |
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What Sparks Poetry:
M. W. Jaeggle on "Wrack Line"
"To make an abstraction like ecological interdependence feel like lived experience—this is a power unique to poetry. Because it entails the realization that paying attention to wilderness is the same as paying attention to the self (and vice versa), this power is foundational. Like a branch from which an owl perches, poetry supports us as we survey our options, bide time, and go about securing the means for continued life." |
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