Contributor Spotlight: Joanne M. Clarkson
Joanne M. Clarkson’s poem “The Art of Dying” is part of Issue 76 of Bellingham Review. Subscribe or purchase a single issue through our Submittable page here.
What would you like to share with our readers about the work you contributed to the Bellingham Review?
This is one of my ‘Jess poems,’ Jess being one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. I first encountered him when he was 98 and thought to be dying. He overcame that crisis and lived until the age of 101. He was a retired doctor and I was a nurse, but we bonded not through medicine but because of our love of poetry. He could repeat from memory dozens of poems he had learned throughout his life. Since, at his advanced age, he knew death was coming, we discussed frequently what might come after. He was born and raised Jewish but kept a large Buddhist shrine in his living room and one of his close friends was a Catholic priest. Jess was open to all manner of spirituality. A few months before his passing, as he approached and passed the 101 year milestone, he began to tell me that he could see the future. He could honestly tell me the score of the Mariners game happening tomorrow and the conclusion of movies and books he hadn’t finished. It seems impossible to transcend ‘time’ this way, but I believe Jess did it. He also told me our relationship would not end but change after he passed, which is true. He died in 2009 and I still write about him.
Tell us about your writing life.
Poetry has been my artistic and spiritual medium since I was a child. There were many talented musicians and visual artists in my family but I had aptitude for neither of these things. My outlet was always words and their relationships in sound and sense and beyond the 5 senses. Death has always been a prominent image since my father passed when I was 10 and my only sibling, a sister, died before I was born. I have also been fascinated by what people consider “beautiful” and why. I was a professional librarian for 20 years but re-careered as a registered nurse after caring for my mother through a long illness. I worked mostly in home health and hospice care. During the nursing years I wrote about the body. Another life-long theme was been Fate. My maternal grandmother was a Psychic Medium, a difficult and troubled woman. She taught me to read cards as a very young child and I taught myself to read palms as a teen. I have always done—positive, helpful—readings for people. Lately I have written more and more “Esther poems,” about my grandmother and have also explored the concept of Fate verse how we shape our destiny.
What writing advice has stayed with you?
I guess the conventional: “No ideas but in things.” Specifics are what people remember not abstraction or theory.
What is your favorite book (or essay, poem, short story)? Favorite writer(s)?
Wow! This is difficult. For a contemporary novel, I admire All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I am fascinated by how he writes without visuals through the person of his blind heroine who uses sound, touch and patterning—poetry, right? For classic poetry, I have always loved Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology. I write mostly about people too and his type of personality is brilliant. I am also an ardent fan of our Lucia Perillo. I knew Lucia, of course, since we both live(d) in Olympia. Her quirky sense of humor and linking of seemingly disparate elements is second to none.
What are you reading right now?
Mark Doty’s “Deep Lane.” For fiction, Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache mysteries.
What project(s) are you working on now, or next?
I start writing about one thing and end up writing another, but I am working on a series of poems about home and homelessness. I am not really a political poet but who can’t be in this climate. I see the lack of affordable housing—or any housing—as one of society’s challenges. It affects children so deeply—no roots, body image problems because of inadequate hygiene and on and on.
Where can our readers connect with you online?
JOANNE M. CLARKSON’S full-length poetry collection The Fates won Bright Hill Press’ annual contest and was published in June 2017. Her chapbook Believing the Body was published by Gribble Press in 2014. This year her work has been featured in the WA129 Poet Laureate Anthology, Blue Heron Review, Catamaran, Edge, Modern Poetry Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, the Ice Cream Poems anthology from World Enough Writers and the We’Moon Datebook for 2018. She has been the recipient of a GAP Grant from Artists Trust and a NEH grant to teach poetry in rural libraries. Clarkson has Master’s Degrees in English and Library Science. She has taught and worked as a professional librarian. After caring for her mother through a long illness, she re-careered as a RN specializing in Home Health and Hospice Care. She lives in Olympia, WA, and serves on the Board of the Olympia Poetry Network.
Featured Image: “Georgina” by hapsnaps