Wach the Poetry Reading – OLD HAT:
Poem read by Holly Sarchfield
Get to know Poet Sue Walker:
1) What is the theme of your poem?
I think the theme is the poem is aging and memory — the things memory holds to when moments are the past that is ever vibrant and alive.
2) How would you like people to respond when they read or watch your poetry reading?
I think that poems / poetry should strike some emotional chord — whether major or minor or even B-flat. I hope that listeners / readers say, “Ah, yes, it was like that — and maybe they’ll fix a mint julep and drink to memories of time past — like Proust: “A la recherche du temps perdu.”
3) How long have you been writing poetry?
Writing seriously since I was a English graduate student at Tulane University — though my Ph.D. was in Literature, not Poetry. I am the Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, Poet Laureate of Alabama from 2003 – 2012, and I am the publisher of Negative Capability Pres (negative capability press.org).
4) Do you have a favorite poet?
I can’t say that I have one favorite poet. I try to keep up with the current poetry scene — and as a poetry publisher, the poets we publish are favorites. We have just published “A DAY LIKE TODAY by NY poet, Barbara Henning — and Lissa Kiernan,s (NY) book, TWO FAINT LINES IN THE VIOLET is an Indie finalist. Negative Capability Press published 14 books in 2014 and we have 15 books scheduled for 2015.
5) What influenced you to submit to WILDsound and have your poetry performed by a professional actor?
I am very interested in the intersection between performance and the written word. I think that words are sound, are motion, are the latest innovations that a chiastic intertwining of WILD SOUNDINGS.
6) Do you write other works? scripts? Short Stories? Etc..?
Yes, I write and have published 8 books of poetry, dhapbooks, a critical book on the ecology of James Dickey, some 60 or so critical articles on Carson McCullers (subject of my Ph.D. dissertation, Flannery O’Connor, Marge Piercy, Richard Eberhart, Karl Shapiro — to name a few. I have published drama, written and performed in one-woman – one-act plays, published fiction (flash fiction and short stories_ and nonfiction — and am enamored with hybrid works. Writing is breath, is inspiration, is joy.
7) What is your passion in life?
Writing, Publishing, Teaching. See Negative Capability Press – http://www.negativecapabilitypres.org — and like us — Negative Capability Press Facebook. Like WILDSOUND, I think that promoting art and artists is, perhaps, the ultimate fulfillment. Isn’t it, after all, an ax that breaks the frozen sea within us — and serves to right a world that needs writers to set the wrong right.
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Deadline for FREE POETRY Festival – Get your poem made into a MOVIE and seen by 1000s. Three options to submit:
http://www.wildsound.ca/poetrycontest.html
WATCH this month’s poetry readings performed by professional actors:
http://www.wildsoundfestival.com/may_2015_poetry_readings.html
WILDsound Festival 