It is interesting that you picked the two of us, probably not knowing our relationship. I've known Greg since taking a summer poetry workshop that he and Dale Harris taught in 2006. He persuaded me to enroll in the poetry class he was teaching that autumn at a local college. Greg is also a musician, as is my husband, Louis. Greg drafted Louis to come play music for a Town/Gown literary event. Eventually, Louis and I became fast friends with Greg and his wife, Michelle. Greg invited Louis, Stewart Warren (who is honored at the front of the F&F anthology), and a wonderful songwriter named Debbi Gutierrez to form a band, which they called Dog Star. They practiced regularly at our house until the pandemic brought the world to a stop.
Greg continued to mentor me in my poetry, and he was the one who told me it was time to publish a collection of my poetry, which I did in 2012, with Stewart (who owned Mercury Heartlink publishing) as my "publishing coach." That was one of 3 very important things Greg did for me. The other two were comments that changed the course of my writing dramatically. The first was in 2006 in his poetry class. I had turned in some assignments and asked what he thought of my writing. He replied, "You are good at technique, but I'd like to see a little more heart in your poems." That really made me think. The second comment, after I had voiced my opinion that the reason people who write free verse do so is because they can't master rhyme, prompted him to say, "With all due respect, you really don't know much about modern poetry." That landed as a truth bomb.
Not long after, I signed up for an online tutorial with a very accomplished poet you may know--Marjorie Rommel--who taught at your alma mater, Pacific University. For a grueling six months I tried to get up to speed enough so that I wouldn't embarrass myself at the upcoming Centrum writers' conference in Port Townsend, WA in 2010. My instructor there was Erin Belieu.
I'm going to give a sonnet on workshops at the January meeting of the Albuquerque chapter of the NM State Poetry Society. Since you teach poetry, I'd like to share this sonnet with you, and you have my permission to use it in your classes if you wish. I wrote it in that first class I took with Greg, and the prompt was that pivotal comment about putting "heart" into my poems. I hope you enjoy it.
Sincerely,
Shirley Blackwell (Shirley Balance Blackwell is the pen name I chose so as not to be confused with Shirley Blackwell Lawrence, a Californian who writes books on numerology.
WRESTLING MATCH
The task was simple—just to write a sonnet
But Inspiration dodged, then ducked for cover,
I mused, then thought, “I’ll put my Muse right on it,”
And ‘phoned Erato,* “Hey, Babe, dash on over.”
No coy mistress, she, but bellicose,
No simile caressed her lips or glance.
Before I had the chance to wax verbose
She crouched behind the words in wrestler’s stance.
She sprang at me in anapestic anger,
I responded with a spondee body slam.
When her metaphor half nelson spelled out danger,
I pinned her to the mat with five iambs.
She spat, “You know the throws, you’ve got the holds,
But, tell me, can you pen the poet’s soul?”
*Erato is the Muse of lyric poetry and mimicry. She is especially fond of erotic and love poetry. Erato blesses the poets of love by making them attractive and desirable.
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