An important corner of my work is represented by the pieces
included in this issue of the Notre Dame Review. I have spent the last two dozen or so years
traveling frequently, often for long periods, usually in Europe, but also in
unusual places such as Easter Island, Iceland, Micronesia. This is one of the many perks of marrying an
anthropologist. Thankfully, in these
travels, I can usually eke out some quiet time in which to do a lot of
writing--only sometimes about the place I'm actually in. It's a wonderful chance to concentrate,
suspended out of home and responsibilities.
My
first published poem appeared in Spring Rain, edited by Karen and John
Sollid, Seattle. I have always been a
writer, always, taking brief forays into totem pole/soapstone carving and other
eccentricities. My poems tend to be
tight, spare, seriously devoted to the words in them, often enjoying their own
fun and mostly about a lot of things other than myself. I intended to eventually write and collect
poems that reflect my feelings about my hometown, Seattle, and in 1999, Ocean
View Books, Lee Ballentine, Editor, produced "Missing Pieces, A Coroner's
Companion." This book is heavily
influenced by my husband's work in forensics, but also by my deep feelings for
Seattle as it once was--rude, undeveloped, completely itself (which sometimes
only amounted to "not Alaska.")
The details of lives as interpreted from things found at the scene or on
the body, the furnishings of a room, the jotting of notes--how these things can
be used to recreate aspects of a life in a poem or prose piece....that is
really what the book is about.
Currently I am compiling a collection of poems dealing with my
perhaps woefully uninformed but deeply felt Finnish heritage, the
approach-withdrawal expression, naturalism and determination of it, The
Finnish Orchestra. At the
same time, in other poems and prose pieces, I am experimenting in form and
style, in ways that I don't adequately describe. I'm hoping both projects will influence each other favorably.
Now that we are traveling a lot less, I am free to edit Snow
Monkey, a magazine I founded with an old friend from high school, Christiel
Cottrell. We were poets then, and now
are more publicly so. The internet and Snow
Monkey has connected me to a lot of great and interesting people,
sustaining me in place of international travel for now.
A Sample from the 'Finnish' book "Sirkka" recently appeared in Niederngasse. Last year an illustrative example, "Don't Say If I Love You", appeared in The Oregon Review.