Poet Teresa White has a lot of reasons to celebrate her return to her hometown of Seattle, and Seattle has a lot to celebrate, as well.
White came into town for a reading of her masterful new book of poetry, "Gardenias for a Beast," which has been hailed by famed poet laureate Billy Collins as essential reading for every lover of creative writing.
Elliott Bay Books was host to White on April 2 for an hour-long reading of her own selections from this moving collection. She was a regular customer there while growing up in Seattle and she says that doing the debut reading for her new book at that venue was such a compelling idea that she couldn't resist.
"It was like a second home for me during the years I lived in Seattle. Everyone who was anyone did readings there, so for me, it was the best place I could imagine to do my first reading of this book."
WRITING FROM EXPERIENCE
Seattle residents will find a lot of local references in White's 235 poems. After all, she was born here, graduated from Roosevelt High School and still remembers with affection her writing class with Sally Bryan, whom she describes as an incredible inspiration to all her students.
"I was so terrified of speaking in front of a group back then that I can hardly believe I am here doing a reading," White said.
She said Bryan's class had some focus on poetry, and each student had to choose one particular poet and write extensively on that person's life. White chose Edna St. Vincent Millay and fell in love with Millay's sonnets. For her first book of poetry, "In What Furnace," which came out in 1997, White included several sonnets that harkened back to that early exposure and became a form she loved.
White studied anthropology and Russian at the University of Washington, but poetry was a big part of her life there, as well. She wrote regularly and was a solid poet who had, in fact, started writing poems at age 12.
She said that except for the single class at Roosevelt, she never took another formal class in poetry but really learned by writing. She had long been in the habit of carrying a notebook with her and writing down ideas so that they couldn't slip from her mind. Later, many of those ideas that survived review were turned into finished poems.
Political topics are regularly touched on in White's poetry. She has written about war, the pillaging of the environment, women's abuse, marriage, depression and even animal abuse with a delicate sensitivity that can only come from the pen of someone who has experience. White has suffered from bipolar disorder all of her adult life, and she said that she has used the poetry not only as a stabilizing factor, but as a mechanism for expressing her pain, delight and care.
She has mentored many young poets , with regular e-mail correspondence from South Africa, Europe and all over the United States.
MUTUAL ADMIRERS
With more than a thousand poems to her credit and a long list of publications that have applauded their originality and pathos, White is nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for this newest work.
Collins' deeply felt assessment of "Gardenias for a Beast" meant so much to White because he happens to be her favorite poet.
"He has been a major source of light in my life," she said. "His work has really gotten poetry out of the academic circles and put it front and center for public consumption. Billy Collins' work is such delightful reading because it is something everyone can relate to. I read it and reread it and always find something new to captivate me.
"It was such an honor for me that he liked my poetry and that he had a favorite of mine, just as I like his poetry and have my own favorite of his," she added.
White is already getting into full swing on her next collection of work.
"Poets are pretty much always in the process of thinking about poems or writing them," she related. "I couldn't sit still for long before poems began to suggest themselves. I call those kinds of poems - the ones that just come to me from out of the blue - gifts. They are, perhaps, the most joyful of the poems I write, one of the best parts and the most serendipitous of the creative process that more than makes up for dry periods when I can't think of anything."[[In-content Ad]]
