Letters
April is full of many traditions. Five years ago when I began to write poems for poetry month I stuck with the theme of domestic tasks. I still include many poems on different domestic tasks. There will always be an Easter Poem every year and there will always be Elais's Birthday Haiku's since his birthday is in mid April.
Another tradition I have continued during poetry month is the inclusion of a Letter to an artist. In 2015 I wrote a letter to Patricia Geodicke. A very personal letter. Patricia Geodicke was born in Boston in 1931 and grew up in Hanover. While growing up she was an accomplished downhill skier and was introduced to poetry when she studied with Robert Frost at Middlebury College in 1953. She then moved on to study under W.H. Auden at the Young Men's Hebrew Association of New York City in 1955. She taught poetry at the University of Montana Missoula until her retirement in 2003. She died of Pneumonia brought on by lung cancer shortly after her retirement. She has written eleven books of poetry including "As the Earth Begins to End: New Poems" published in 2000 and "Between Oceans" published in the 1990's. She is well anthologized and her poems are found throughout many collections. Thank you Patricia for your passion and your poetry, you will be missed. Friends in Art In 2014 I wrote a an Ottava Rima on the letters between the poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. Elizabeth Bishop met Robert Lowell in the late 1940s and they remained friends until his death in 1977. Elizabeth died two years after Lowell. They wrote an incredibly large amount of letters to one another throughout their friendship. Each letter discusses their writing of poetry and poetry in general. Their relationship was held together through these letters since they were separated by geography throughout their lives. Elizabeth spent two decades in Brazil with her lover Lota de Macedo Soares. I feel that their letters are a testament to the power of letter writing and how this art is being lost. In 2008 a collection of their letters was published as "Words in Air" edited by Thomas Trevisano and Saskia Hamilton and published by Ferrar-Straus and Giroux. In 2012 the playwright Sarah Ruhl presented her play "Dear Elizabeth" on stage. Her play is a dramatization of the letters between the two poets. Letter to... W.H. Auden wrote the ottava rima "Letters to Lord Byron" which inspired me to write my first ottava rima as a letter to an artist. Since this time I have written my letters in ottawa rima. In 2013 I wrote a fictionalized account of the letters between Muriel Ruykeiser and Einstein. Here is the introduction to that poem... "I am writing this little introduction because I felt this piece needed one. I am addicted to Podcasts and listen to Poetry Podcasts often and was introduced to the friendship of Muriel Ruykeiser and Einstein. Well, maybe not an actual friendship but they did exchange letters. I have not read the letters and I tried to piece together what they may have said to each other. I then realized that they probably did not share their inner most feelings they probably slowly worked their way into a more formal discussion of their lives. I was introduced to Muriel Ruykeiser in "No More Masks! An Anthology of Twentieth-century American Women Poets" edited by Florence Howe. I was moved by Muriel Ruykeiser's essay "The Poem as Mask" located in the Anthology. I was introduced to Einstein, well, studying science." I tried my hand at another ottava rima and added another "Letter" poem to the collection. I hope you enjoy the poetry.
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