Local Ground(S)—Midwest Poetics ELECTED ROSE VERSE WISCONSIN • S P 2009–2014 Edited by Sarah Busse & Wendy Vardaman Ground Local Ground(S)
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local local ground(s)—midwest poetics ELECTED ROSE VERSE WISCONSIN • S P 2009–2014 edited By sarah Busse & wendy Vardaman ground local ground(s) For six years, Wendy Vardaman and Sarah Busse co-edited the hybrid ( poetry magazine Verse Wisconsin working on laptops out of local cofee s )— local ground(s) shops and libraries. Over 13 print and 15 online issues, they published the work and words of writers from around the corner and around the globe. Including poetry, essays, book reviews, interviews, verse drama, midwest local ground(s) spoken word, visual poetry, and other poetic forms in print, image, audio, and video, they sought to build the audience for poetry and the community of poets, while working to defne and redefne what local ground(s) community might mean. Over the years, the mission of Verse Wisconsin underwent signifcant shifts, as editorial emphasis moved from a poetics simple publication model toward creating conversations, activisms, midwest poetiCs• and transformational circles, seeking to invite diverse voices into these conversations, to defne and to redefne what a poetics of the Midwest might be, and to point the way towards what such a Midwest poetics might become. Tis volume represents another iteration of an ongoing conversation, as the voices of Verse Wisconsin’s editors weave in and out ELECTED ROSE ERSE ISCONSIN with those of other poets, once again reframing the questions by selecting • S P V W 2009–2014 work from over the years and placing pieces in new context. EditEd by Sarah buSSE & WEndy Vardaman B Sarah Busse and Wendy usse Vardaman are Poets Laureate of Madison, Wisconsin (2012– 2015), editors of three • anthologies, including V Echolocations, Poets Map ardaman Madison, editors of Verse Wisconsin (versewisconsin. org), and founders of Cowfeather Press by Katrin Talbot Photo (cowfeatherpress.org). Tey teach workshops and organize readings and conversations about poetry. Cover Art: C. Mehrl Bennett cow cowfeatherpress.org f $20 eather press LOCAL GROUND(S)—MIDWEST POETICS local ground(s) local ground(s) local ground(s) local ground(s) MIDWEST POETICS1 1 Selected Prose Verse Wisconsin 2009–2014 Edited by Sarah Busse & Wendy Vardaman ©2014 Cowfeather Press Published by Cowfeather Press, PO Box 620216, Middleton, WI 53562 Website: cowfeatherpress.org Email: [email protected] Supporting materials at cowfeatherpress.org ISBN-10: 0984656863 ISBN-13: 978-0-9846568-6-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2014952090 Cover Art: C. Mehrl Bennett Cover & Book Design: Wendy Vardaman We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets; Linda Aschbrenner; the Verse Wisconsin advisors (Linda Aschbrenner, B. J. Best, Cathryn Cofell, Ron Czerwien, Tom Erickson, Fabu, David Graham, Angela Rydell, and Marilyn L. Taylor), especially instrumental in crafting the magazine’s initial mission statement; volunteer proofreadering assistance from numerous people, including, for this anthology, Adam Halbur, CJ Muchhala, Tom DuBois, and VW intern, Marina Oliver; individual donors, subscribers, contributors, and readers; and our husbands and children for cheerfully putting up with a magazine that had no office. To red wine, to dark chocolate, and to coffee, sustainably sourced. To all the poets who have put time in in the poetry mines, one decade or another. To each one who has raised their voice in their own time and way. To purple. To our families. To you, reader. 1 CONTENTS Forewords & Backwards: Some Notes from the Cupcake Circus, Wendy Vardaman & Sarah Busse 9 ON THE GROUND—THE SCENE IN WISCONSIN Small Press Poetry Publishing: I Ask Myself What’s It All About—The History of Free Verse & Marsh River Editions, Linda Aschbrenner 19 Jessica Nelson North: Recalling The Reaches Of Silence And Sound, LaMoine MacLaughlin 23 Recollections of a Wisconsin Small Press Editor and Publisher, Gary Busha 27 Fireweed Press, Jeri McCormick 33 Center Stillness: Conversations with Phyllis Walsh & CX Dillhunt 35 A Means to Open to the World: A Conversation Around Blogging, Sarah Busse, Jennifer Morales, Margaret Rozga, Margaret Swedish & Lisa Vihos 41 After Your Book is Published, Then What? Getting Your Work Out There, Sandy Stark 66 EveryMom, or How—and Why—to Support Wisconsin Writers, Wendy Vardaman & Sarah Busse 68 IN THE SPOTLIGHT—POETRY & THE ARTS Threaded Metaphors: Connecting to Community, CJ Muchhala 81 The Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker, Doug Reed 85 One Month In, March 18, 2011, Sarah Busse 89 It’s Meant to Be Read: Making Poetry Public, Marilyn Zelke-Windau 91 The Art of Resistance, Callen Harty 95 Our Expanding Dramaverse, Wendy Vardaman & Greer DuBois 97 The Making of the Latina Monologues, Angela Trudell Vasquez 105 The Heartlander Experience & Homeward-bound, Sifundo aka Be Manzini 115 The Potency of Poetry, A Conversation with Actor David Daniel, Sarah Busse 118 Interview with Matthea Harvey, Wendy Vardaman 124 ON THE MAP—ECOPOETICS, POETICS OF PLACE Interview with Kimberly Blaeser, Wendy Vardaman 135 The Making of an Ecopoet, Jeff Poniewaz 154 Interview with Antler, Charlie Rossiter 165 Interview with Moisés Villavicencio Barras, Sarah Busse 170 Entrevista a Moisés Villavicencio Barras, Sarah Busse (trad. MVB) 175 Black Earth Institute, Patricia Monaghan 180 Fond du Lac’s Foot of the Lake Poetry Collective, Mary Wehner 183 Letter from the Frost Place, Adam Halbur 186 IN THE CIRCLE—POETS IN COMMUNITY Community Inclusive: A Poetics to Move Us Forward, Margaret Rozga 193 Poetry in Prison, Laurel Bastian 197 Community of Poets, Harlan Richards 201 Interview with Martín Espada, Wendy Vardaman 204 Kundiman, a Zuihitsu, Ching-In Chen 218 Home is Where the Art Is: Writing as Community, Bianca Spriggs 220 Saag Paneer Sutra–or–How One Indian Entrée Nourished Seven Poets, Judith Harway 225 Poetical Economy/Exchange: Kitchens, Coffee Shops, Cluttered Tables, Communities, Wendy Vardaman 228 Is Half a Poet Better Than None?Cathryn Cofell 236 My Barefoot Rank, David Graham 239 ON THE PAGE—CRAFT TALK In the Beginning … Some Notes on Just That, Sarah Busse 247 Who’s on the Toilet?: A Family of Zen Poets (Re)Digested through Žižek, Adam Halbur 252 Small Thoughts: Writing and Submitting Haiku, Michael Kriesel 259 Some Notes on the Art of Uncovering the Art of the Prose Poem, or Confessions of a Prose Poetry Writer, CX Dillhunt 265 Tradition & the Individual Sonnet, or Listen! Iambic Verse Has Variation, Wendy Vardaman 269 On a Double Reverse Sonnet, Bruce Taylor 278 Interview with Philip Dacey, Karla Huston 282 Going Deep: Some Notes on Sentiment & Sentimentality, David Graham 295 Interview with John Koethe, Wendy Vardaman 299 Beyond Happily Ever After: Working at the Endings of Our Poems, Sarah Busse 309 Revising Your Poems, Michael Kriesel 313 What a Poet Carries: Observations on Working with Elementary School Writers, CX Dillhunt 320 Teaching Akhmatova, Greg Weiss 324 ON RECORD—POETS AS HISTORIANS, STORYTELLERS,WITNESSES Enrichment and Repair: How Poetry Can Refresh Our Vision, Thomas R. Smith 333 Interview with Brenda Cárdenas, Wendy Vardaman 340 Frank X Walker, A Conversation, CX Dillhunt & Drew Dillhunt 361 Poetry and Photographs as Family Memoir, Linda Aschbrenner 371 Jeanette and Justice: Skirting Oblivion, Sarah Busse 375 Worth the Risk: Writing Poetry about Children with Special Needs, Laura C. Wendorff 379 At the Kitchen Table: Shoshauna Shy Talks to Meg Kearney 382 A Newly Discovered Poem by Lorine Niedecker, “marriage,” Sarah Busse 389 Primipara: a Magazine by Women Poets (1974–1984), Jeri McCormick 392 The Essay That I Begin Writing While Walking to the Wisconsin Capitol Trying to Discern the Right Question 2/24/11, Wendy Vardaman 397 The Flowage Rebellions, Lane Hall 403 Afterwords—(di)Verse Wisconsin: Community & Diversity, Sarah Busse & Wendy Vardaman 409 Contributors' Notes 417 Selected Prose Selected 1 Forewords & Backwards: Some Notes from the Cupcake Circus By WENDY VARDAMAN & Sarah Busse Wisconsin Verse Twenty-five years of parenting conditioned me to make lists. Keep calendars. Juggle schedules. It’s how I managed three children, no car. It’s how I approached arts administration and what I brought to Verse Wisconsin. Well. That and 1Verse Wisconsin by Numbers the ability to do projects with next to 2009 – 2014 1 no money. Flash forward five (or is it • Poetry contributors in print: 887* six? yes, it is six) years, and, though in 13 issues I’m losing my taste for Post-Its with • Poetry contributors online: 1117* in 15 issues the departure of child #3 this fall, I • Books reviewed online: 314* still think in list... (It’s what my oldest • Prose essays & interviews called me in his first poem about 20 published, online & print: 119* 9 years ago, giving family members • # of subscribers at any given time: rhymed titles: Mister, Sister, Trickster, 150 – 240 Lister.) I share some VW lists in the • # of guest poetry editors: 16 boxes to the right and below. The • # of volunteer proofreaders: 13 project we started with is not the • # of social media channels: 4 project we leave, and this collection is • # of Facebook followers: 815 one attempt to solve the differential • Largest # of views a VW video has received on YouTube: 470 equation of its shifting significance • # of HTML pages at the website: at this particular moment in time. 3367 Six months ago, six months in the • # of individual visitors to the future, the book, the answer, would website (2009 – 2014): 125,027 be different for many reasons. For one (as of 9/25/2014) there are serendipities—historical, • Most visited single content page political, local, personal—that shape online: “Interview with Martín this project as much as editorial Espada” interests or poetry. We write in the • # of organizations/groups VW uncertainty of what November’s collaborated with on a project: 38 • # of paid staff, incl. editors: 0 election will bring Wisconsin. Like • Avg. # of miles run/week 10/2008 many of you, we’ve struggled with (WV): 20 our relation to the state these last few • Avg.