Julie Marie Wade closes the Ghost Ocean Magazine 30/30 National Poetry Month issue with “Letter to Judy Garland as Francis Gumm.”
It’s been a great National Poetry Month, everyone. Thanks for listening.
12 playsCan you remember the first poem you ever wrote? Read?
I was around eight years old, and a friend of the family had died. I didn’t know this person, but I wanted to make a card to convey my sympathy during a time of sadness. It made intuitive sense to me that a poem was the best way to acknowledge grief. So I wrote a rhymed poem and printed it very carefully inside a homemade card and gave it to my parents to take to the funeral. I don’t think I wrote another poem until high school, but the elegiac impulse is with me, even now. As for the first poem I read, I’m sure it was something by Shel Silverstein. The first poem that I remember having a dramatic impact on my life, however, was Denise Levertov’s “In Mind,” which my senior English teacher, Ms. Kaz, brought for us to read and discuss on the first day of AP American Lit. I remember I volunteered to read the poem, and then I answered all the questions she asked about it, and later I transcribed the poem in my calligraphy class and hung it on my bedroom wall. For all I know, it’s still there. In fact, I really hope it is.
What misconception about poetry bothers you most?
That poetry is intractable, impossible to understand, and not worth trying to understand. I teach a lot of poetry, even in classes that don’t have poetry in the course description, and I’m always saddened by how fearful some students are about the prospect of reading poems. I take it as my special mission to show them the possibilities of the poem, the incredible versatility of the genre. Books like Cornelius Eady’s Brutal Imagination, Denise Duhamel’s Kinky, Stacey Waite’s love poem to androgyny, A. Van Jordan’s M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A, James Allen Hall’s Now You’re the Enemy, Sandra Cisneros’ Loose Woman, Tony Hoagland’s What Narcissism Means to Me, and Marie Howe’s What the Living Do have all, in my experience, held open the doors to poetry for reticent students to step inside and join the celebration.
Favorite word? Least favorite?
I love so many words it’s hard to pare down, but there is a subset of words I especially enjoy. I call them “Wonky Words,” as wonky is one such word. For me, the best of the wonky words would have to be “kerfuffle.” I also like “waffle,” used as a verb. I hate the word “seminal” and am loathe to use it in a sentence (even this one!).
Considering the poems you write, what about yourself would surprise readers most?
My poems tend toward the melancholic, or at least the ruminative, a good portion of the time, but in real life, I am an exceptionally cheerful person. My partner has been known to call me “Cherry Merry Muffin,” and I deserve it.
Favorite writing environment (place, lighting, music, etc.)?
I will write anywhere I can, but I like best writing at home in the early morning quiet while it’s still dark outside. I make a pot of coffee, feed the cats, and park myself at my table near the window. I don’t listen to music while I write, but I do like to have a soft candle lit or a bunch of Christmas tree lights gathered together in a bright-white bouquet.
If every poet in history were forced into a cage-style death match, who would walk out alive?
Wow. That’s a tough one, and I don’t have a good answer. But if I were playing the ultimate poetic edition of Red Rover, I’d want the universe to send right over Quan Barry, Sandra Cisneros, Lucille Clifton, Mark Doty, Denise Duhamel, Cornelius Eady, T.S. Eliot, Jorie Graham, Marie Howe, Sharon Olds, Claudia Rankine, and Adrienne Rich—in alphabetical order, of course!
Julie Marie Wade reads “Letter to Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale,” the first of two letters to Judy Garland.
29 playsJoshua Young reads the fifth and final letter in this set of “dear survivors” letters from This is the Way to Rule.
4 playsJoshua Young reads the penultimate poem in his set, “dear survivors.”
6 playsThe ghost rebellion is in full-swing as Joshua Young continues “dear survivors.”
7 playsThe story continues to unfold in the second installment of Joshua Young’s “dear survivors.”
8 playsCan you remember the first poem you ever wrote? Read?
The first thing I fell in love with was Joshua Marie Wilkinson’s Lug Your Careless Body Out of the Careful Dusk. The first poem I ever wrote was in high school. I wrote poems then made them lyrics for my band because that’s what Jeremy Enigk of Sunny Day Real Estate supposedly did. My poems sounded like Enigk lyrics.
What misconception about poetry bothers you most?
1) That it’s too difficult
2) That it’s too easy
3) That it needs to be more widely read. I’m fine with the community if it grows, cool. But as long as it doesn’t disappear, then what the fuck is everyone crying about. Be OK that you (most likely) can’t make a living from it.
Favorite word? Least favorite?
Ghost/Skeleton (Fav)::Happy/Sad (Least Favorite)
Considering the poems you write, what about yourself would surprise readers most?
I’ve never seen the apocalypse or murder. I used to be youth leader (for churches and whatnot)
Favorite writing environment (place, lighting, music, etc.)?
Wherever I can squeeze in a minute, but usually in front of the TV.
If every poet in history were forced into a cage-style death match, who would walk out alive?
Judy Jordan, Abraham Smith, Charles Simic, and my crew from Columbia College Chicago—you know who you are…
