Tag Archives: Poet

I Dish about Dolls and Doll God

Today is the last day of National Poetry Month. I haven’t done a fraction of what I had intended to do in celebration, but just because the month ends doesn’t mean I leave poetry behind. (And there is still time to purchase that copy of Doll God, hint hint 😉 ).

Serena over at Savvy Verse & Wit interviewed me for her blog today. She asked me some interesting questions about my relationship to dolls and, of course, about Doll God.

Click here to check out the interview.

Thanks so much, Serena, for the blog tour and for this interview. Your support of poetry is inspirational.

Mid-century  Snow White doll heads

Mid-century Snow White doll heads

Snow makes a couple of appearances in Doll God!

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Filed under Books, Doll God, Dolls, Interview, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Publishing, Writing

What is That Beat from Inside the Earth?

In December, I posted a two-part essay by Abenaki poet Carol Bachofner here and here. In this piece, she redefines her artistic identity. Today I am sharing my review of her 4th poetry collection, Native Moons, Native Days.

These lovely poems explore and illuminate the life stories of the Abenaki, both past and present. They begin as lyric poems, but the singular first-person perspective doesn’t insist on itself as a lone entity. Rather, the view merges with a larger “we.” In this way, the poetry collection gives voice to a people.

The first poem, “Origin,” tells a story of how “[e]verything started over water” when a woman looked down through a hole in the clouds, “dreaming and falling.” By “Epilogue,” “We look to the sky to see who is falling, who is rising.” I read this as a creation story that informs a system of symbols that give meaning for the woman telling these poetic stories as well as for the Abenaki. As the moons come and go, so do the generations.

Bachofner’s poems bring the reader closer to the rich earth and its fruit (“Plunging hands into warm earth / where worms have shed casts”)–the dirt, the squash, the ocean, its fish. They have a way of slowing down the contemporary world and connecting the reader through place and naming. The names are important: they punctuate the poems. Medawihla, Mezatanos, Pashipakokee: loon, moon, river. My first time through the book I read the poems aloud, relying on instinct for pronunciations, and they felt good in my mouth.

Just under the musicality of Bachofner’s lines, I hear a heart beat that seems to come from the center of the earth. No one could expect poetry to do more.

Here’s a sample from the book:

We Speak the White Man’s Language

except when dreaming, except when our fingers

braid hair, weave blankets, knot bait bags,

when we are praying in Indian. Work brings words

from the belly, the soles of the feet.

Words walk the woods where our relatives

burned the way forward from camp to camp,

trading stories with people along the way.

We speak in our own tongues, syllables full

of consonants, echoing from the back

of the throat to the nose, to the wind.

Our words are a clearing, a place for fire.

Where did the language go when the black robes

threw holy water on it? Did it disappear

when the switch was on our backs? Into the trees,

into the streams, into our combs to wait.

Carol has also published three other poetry collections. Go forth and check them out!

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Filed under Book Review, Books, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Writing

Does This Poem Need to Sit at the Kids’ Table?

I don’t think I’ve ever told you that one of my favorite poems (I do have a few ahem) is by Delmore Schwartz.

i am cherry alive

‘I am cherry alive,” the little girl sang,
“Each morning I am something new:
I am apple, I am plum, I am just as excited
As the boys who made the Hallowe’en bang:
I am tree, I am cat, I am blossom too:
When I like, if I like, I can be someone new,
Someone very old, a witch in a zoo:
I can be somone else whenever I think who,
And I want to be everything sometimes too,
And I put it in along with everything
To make the grown-ups laugh whenever I sing:
And I sing : It is true; It is untrue;
I know, I know, the true is untrue,
The peach has a pit,
The pit has a peach:
And both may be wrong
When I sing my song,
But I don’t tell the grown-ups, because it is sad,
And I want them to laugh just like I do
Because they grew up
And forgot what they knew
And they are sure
I will forget it some day too.
They are wrong. They are wrong.
When I sang my song, I knew, I knew!
I am red, I am gold,
I am green, I am blue,
I will always be me,
I will always be new!”

I love the magic of this poem. It was posthumously published in 1979 as a picture book, illustrated by Barbara Cooney.

The poem has been included in poetry anthologies for children. Apparently another picture book was published in 1995 with a different illustrator, but it is out of print.

Why is it considered a poem for children only? It’s certainly a wonderful poem for children, but also for adults. After all, we know that the little girl is wrong and she will forget–most of the time.

But we adults also know that we easily can be reminded to allow the child into our adult selves!

That’s why I love dolls and cats and theatre and digging in the sand with a plastic pail and shovel.

Playing reminds us that we can be tree, cat, blossom, and a witch in a zoo! Sound a lot like writing?

How do you feel about dividing poems into those for children and those for adults?

 

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Filed under Cats and Other Animals, Children's Literature, Dolls, Poetry

Doll God Makes an Appearance on AZTV

I’m still trying to crank out a revision for Stanford, but I thought I’d give you a snicker of enjoyment today. I want to remind you that the night before my TV interview I did not sleep AT ALL. Therefore, I don’t feel I should be responsible for the baggy, wrinkled state of affairs in this video. I’ll be back Monday!

***

castle promotional cover

 

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Filed under Arizona, Book promotion, Doll God, Dolls, Interview, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Publishing, Vintage American culture

Remembering National Poetry Month

HAPPY POETRY MONTH. I can’t let the opening of this month go by without mentioning this happy month (although T.S. Eliot did call it the cruellest month).

The Academy of American Poets partnered with award-winning designer Chip Kidd to commission this poster to celebrate National Poetry Month.  This year’s poster was designed by National Book Award finalist Roz Chast and inspired by Mark Strand. Even Pear Blossom likes it (or is it the crinkle sound?).

With so much on my mind lately, I haven’t organized a list of what I wanted to do for poetry month this year, so for now I think I will read at least one new poem every day. If you like that idea, here is an easy way to do it. Sign up for Poem-A-Day through Poets.org here.

Here is a new one for me by “America’s favorite poet”:

Billy Collins history of weather

I love that this poem begins with spring since spring is breaking open the ground now. I love how the poem goes back farther and farther in time and ends with a realization that the speaker who is trying to get his mind around all this is lying outside with “his jacket bunched into a pillow, an open book on his chest.”

What do you plan to do for National Poetry Month?

 

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Filed under Art and Music, Poetry, Writing

Follow MaryGold and Not Me Next Week!

Just a little note to say I will be on hiatus through next week.

MaryGold’s adventures will continue. Adventure #3 posted on my Facebook page and on Twitter today.  The 4th adventure will post on social media at some point on Tuesday–or perhaps late Monday. Watch for it.

Instead of a quiz, just write me at writersite.wordpress[at]gmail.com and tell me where MaryGold went on all four adventures. The first three people who email the correct answers will receive books.

If I’m behind responding to comments on previous posts, know that I have read your delightful comments and will respond when I return to Casa WordPress.

Hope your spring is off to a great start! And I also hope you win a copy of Doll God!

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Filed under Blogging, Book Giveaway, Books, Doll God, Dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection

A Different Kind of Book Review: Doll God by Luanne Castle #MondayBlogs #bookreview #poetry

Marie Ann Bailey has written a beautiful story about Doll God–that also happens to be a review! The special nature of this story really touched my heart. Thank you so much, Marie!

Read and enjoy . . . .

Don’t forget that MaryGold’s 2nd adventure is posted today on my Facebook page and on Twitter! 

Facebook page and on Twitter! Remember to see where she went on her first and second adventures and jot down the information!

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Filed under Book Giveaway, Book Review, Books, Doll God, Dolls, Nonfiction, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Writing

MaryGold’s First Adventure

MaryGold’s adventures start today on my Facebook page and on Twitter! Remember to see where she went on her first adventure and jot down the information!

MaryGold with Isabella Rose

As I mentioned the other day, every Friday and every Tuesday I will post on my Facebook page and on Twitter a new adventure that MaryGold has taken (March 13, 17, 20, and 24). After four adventures, I will post a quiz on here on March 26 related to the adventures. The first three persons who email me the correct answer will each win a free signed copy of Doll God.  My email is  writersite.wordpress[at]gmail.com.

While you’re checking out Facebook and Twitter, feel free to “like” the page or “follow” writersitetweet, if you haven’t already.  Also, I will watch for your Twitter follow and follow you back.

***

I held another contest for people who have already read Doll God. It was to tell me where MaryGold is found inside the pages of the book. That contest has a winner: retired librarian and book reviewer Melanie who blogs at Tea Leaves. She even wrote a review of Doll God,.

I am sending her a copy of James Arthur’s poetry collection Charms Against Lightning. 

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Filed under Book Giveaway, Books, Doll God, Dolls, Photographs, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Writing

TV and Me

I am behind in blog reading because my schedule has been overwhelming, but will catch up as soon as I can. I hope today is a good day for checking out my “reader.”

As you might have noticed from Renee’s review (thank you so much, Renee!), first posted on Monday, I was interviewed on AZTV7’s Morning Scramble Monday morning about Doll God. The interview itself turned out to be a painless experience–Sandy Moss and the crew were low key, warm, and put me right at ease. The interview was “live” across all of Arizona, and my husband watched me on the screen from another room.*

The night before we drove from Phoenix up to Cottonwood to spend the night. I had to be at the station at 8AM. Hubby has problems with altitudes, and Cottonwood is a lower elevation than Prescott, where AZTV7 is located. We stayed in a hotel room where the window had an exterior light shining into it–and a flimsy set of blinds covering it. With my sensitivity to light it was torture. Then it was also very warm in the room. The hotel turned out to have no staff working all night either. They get in at 9AM . . . .  I did not sleep the entire night. All I did was lie there thinking, “Light, heat, and lack of sleep are my migraine triggers. What if I am struck with a complicated migraine in the middle of the interview?” I actually came up with scenarios of how to handle the situation, should it arise. They all ended with me running for a bucket.

Hubby and I got up and ready in time, so that was a plus. The downside was that the bags under my eyes were packed and ready to pay $75 each for being overweight.

We drove through the mountains and past the snow banks. That was a treat. And hubby didn’t get sick this time from driving through the high altitude.

Two other women were being interviewed on the same show: the founder of Rhonda’s STOP BULLYING Foundation for Girls and the Director of Resource Development for the Prescott Area Habitat for Humanity. Just before my segment, Sandy Moss made a plea for Ringling Bros/Barnum and Bailey Circus to retire their elephants NOW, not in three (long) years. If you don’t know about this news, read about it here. When my son was a teen, he and I used to picket the circus on behalf of the elephants, so this help for them has already taken a long long time. Why should they have to wait another three years? Another three years of abuse!

I was relieved to be interviewed before the other women, as I didn’t have time to watch them and critique how much worse I would do than they were doing. But Sandy’s questions were not designed to make me look stupid (the responsibility for that rests with me), and she let me read a poem :). When we were done, she said she was surprised that my segment lasted nine minutes. She wasn’t as surprised as I was–it felt like about three minutes!

After that, hubby and I went out for omelettes and then headed to Prescott’s antique stores. There I discovered the “find” of my doll collecting! A Door of Hope bride doll!!!!! I never dreamed I would find such a thing. Door of Hope are highly collectible, very expensive dolls that were made by very poor ex-slave Chinese girls at Door of Hope mission in Shanghai from about 1900-1950.

Isn’t that beaded veil just gorgeous?! Look at the work that went into this costume.

And I got a good deal on the doll.  So the day turned out pretty good, although it all happened on zero sleep.

By the way, that was the first time I was on TV since I was ten years old. My class performed an original play, and I played the role of Nurse #2, which doesn’t sound so great, but was actually one of the main roles.

That’s me in the nurse’s cap at the far end of the table, seated. Dr. Manner’s something or other was the name of the play. That was Dr. Manners, the boy standing near the clock. Boys were the doctors. Girls were the nurses. But at least nurses got to wear those cool caps!

* The new TV segment will be edited by my daughter and then I will post. If I have the guts.

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Filed under Arizona, Books, Cats and Other Animals, Doll God, Dolls, Memoir, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Sightseeing & Travel

Book Review: Luanne Castle’s Doll God and Why I Loved it When I’m Afraid of Dolls

Thanks to Renee at Unpacked Writer for this fabulous Doll God review!!!

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Filed under Book Review, Books, Doll God, Dolls, Nonfiction, poems about dolls, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, WordPress