Poets and Poems: Dan Rattelle and “The Commonwealth”

Poet Dan Rattelle reminds us that there is more to the idea of “place” than geographic location. In The Commonwealth, a chapbook of 20 engaging and easily accessible poems, Rattelle accept and explores the broad definition of place – a living, breathing idea that embraces community, memory, people, family, friends, and the natural environment. In this broader sense, place becomes self-definition and self-identity. 

I read these poems and was prompted to do a count. Over the course of a lifetime, I’ve lived in 15 dwellings in six communities, which, compared to some, is only a faint echo of the famous rootlessness of post-World War II America. Yet if you asked me where my home was, my first thought is always New Orleans, where I spent almost all my growing-up years and where I often joined my mother’s large and extensive family rambling over the landscape. Yet I haven’t physically lived there in almost half a century.

 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Poets and Poems: Jessica De Guyat and “Fording the Stream”

Place has been an anchor for poets for thousands of years. It may be living in a place, leaving a place, or returning to a place, but geography exerts a strong influence on the poetic mind. British poet Jessica De Guyat is an example. She writes poems about place. 

That place may be the East Midlands in England, where she lives: it may be the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland; and it may be Lindisfarne Abbey. She walks in the footsteps of St. Columba. She spends a summer in the French Midi. She takes a country drive or spends time in an attic. She looks from her cottage window during the seasons of the year. She has an encounter with William Wordsworth in Wordsworth country. Even when she writes about the human condition or the death of loved ones, she’s centered in place. 

To continue reading, please see my poem today at Tweetspeak Poetry.