Dear readers:
The Fall 1998 collection is titled "Last Days of May". I wrote the material while putting my life through some of the furthest-reaching changes I have made in many decades. I realized that my life needed a course change -- a few hundred miles further south, and about two thousand miles to the west. After living in Memphis, TN for longer than I care to remember, I packed up my life and moved to the L.A. area. The months of planning and implementing this process of leaving produced a profound impact on my creativity. The realization that time is short, that events must be cherished, and that the making of memories can no longer be left for later, holds as true for life itself as it does for any physical place or phase of our life we may spend time in. Even if we're not aware of it every moment, we are always leaving from somewhere, no matter how slowly, and life is, after all, rented, not owned.
There is, in my opinion, definitely an underlying theme in "Last Days of May" -- an expectant waiting for an event to happen. Sometimes that waiting takes the form of a fervent, breathless anticipation of things that are bound to take place -- the change of seasons, maybe a coming of events we've set in motion and have long planned for. Other times, waiting can take on a patient hopefulness for things that are completely beyond our control -- maybe waiting to hear from someone who may or may not respond to what we might want, a lottery drawing or a person we love.
After the sometimes wordy eloquence of "Under a Sky", the Summer '98 collection, I wanted greater terseness in my style, and to express my material more symbolically, relying less on visual elements. For this, I am deeply grateful for the inspiration I drew from Linda Delayen's poetry, whose style served as a role model for where I wanted to go in my style. In particular, the poem "Last Days of May" is a direct reflection of this influence. The collection, like others before it, continues to cover new ground for me creatively, and I can't wait to see where this will take me by the time you read my next collection.
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With best Regards,
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the collection:
Last Days of May -- a slowly growing anticipation of change.
Regrets -- running out of time getting to know someone.
lines -- started out as a train of thought involving the many connotations of that particular word. As it ran off the rails, I realized I was thinking of someone a long way away from me.
waiting -- time painfully, slowly goes by.
TALGO ("The Art of Letting Go") was the first departure from "Under a Sky", thanks to new influences on my poetry by fellow writers such as Jeff Courouleau.
Roads -- a philosophical view of the very symbols of leaving.
simile -- literally, "a comparison of two things using the words 'like' or 'as' ".
awkwardness -- waiting for an ending.
sparrow -- a study in quickness.
leaving Capistrano -- a change of seasons.
Huntington Beach -- a series of verbal studies of my surroundings.
encounter -- an impression of someone not met.
