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Explore poems read by the two authors in conversation with each other, then follow your own fish to unlock your own creativity, and share it with us.
Good morning. This is Deborah Schmidt. I'm here my with friend Sue Boudreaux, and we are going to explore poems read by the two of us in conversation with each other. Then the plan is to have you follow your own fish to unlock your creativity and share it with us. The podcast will air on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Deborah:This is the second episode of our fish podcasts. And I'm going to read my poem, The Goldfish Four. It's one from a long ongoing series of blank verse poems all about the goldfish in my backyard. The Goldfish Four. For two cold sunless days, I was afraid the goldfish were all gone again.
Deborah:Perhaps they'd grown so plump, the biggest was as round as a clementine, that they'd become a meal, an easy catch for some marauding raccoon. I scanned the pond, murky now with tannins from a recent drift of windblown leaves, searching in the shelter of the filter near the shadowed warmth around the pump and in the bubbly swirl swirl of turbulence beneath the waterfall, I scattered food, flakes of algae, called them silently, and waited. Waited, but they did not come. For some few hopeful breaths, I thought I'd found one, but it was just the vivid flame of sunshine flickering through the overhanging roses and trembling on the bottom of the pool. The morning of the third day, there they were, as if they'd never vanished, hovering below the falling stream, the ripples dancing and reflecting over them, three rays of saturated color as if they gathered all the light into their orange hearts, multiplied it, and cast it back to us with infinite unmeasured caritas. Thank you, Deborah. That was just lovely. I just thought I'd start with my favorite phrases and images from your poem. I really loved the line that said, murky now with tannins from recent drift of wind blown leaves and I loved the shadowed warmth around the pump and the bubbly swirl of turbulence beneath the waterfall. A vivid flame of sunshine and then the landing three rays of saturated color as if they gathered all the light into their orange hearts, multiplied it, and cast it back to us.
Sue:So I was wondering, can you tell us a little about yourself, your career, and your emergence as a poet? Because I know that you've actually written a lot and have published some both in chapbooks, but also, I think, properly published. Can you can you tell us a little bit about
Deborah:Thank you, Sue. Yeah. I have loved poetry and written poetry since I was a child. But at a certain point, I got majorly sidetracked into the life of a musician and the life of a parent of three children. And when I returned to poetry seriously, I was writing a lot, but I was at really afraid of the world of poetry. I thought people would be critical, dismissive, not welcoming, patronizing. I don't know why I thought these things because, honestly, I found the world of poetry to be so generous. People have been so remarkably generous and welcoming. But I started at first by self publishing chat books before I got of the courage to join with other poets in open mics and competitions or to submit to generals and competitions.
Sue:Can you can you stop for just a second there? Because I bet that some readers don't know what a chapbook is.
Deborah:Okay. Sure. It's just a smaller volume of poetry. Generally oh, what is the number? Like, to 36 pages.
Sue:And self published?
Deborah:It doesn't have to be. A lot of chapters are properly published, but you certainly can publish them by yourself. And it's, you know, pretty easy in these days to Mhmm. Do it or into stables or do it online somehow. So
Sue:And then some other ways. You mentioned some other ways of getting your poetry out there. Could you talk to that a bit?
Deborah:Yeah. There are a lot of organizations that sponsor open mics, and they're very welcoming. They don't ask you to submit credentials necessarily. You can just, you know, try to get on their list. If you get there early enough, you generally get a slot, and it's a wonderful way to hear the other poets around you. And, of course, now with Zoom open mics, you're hearing poets from pretty far afield as well, which is very inspiring.
Sue:So if I look that up on Google, I could find some poetry open mics?
Deborah:Yeah. I think if you just put in open mic, especially if you look if you put in the word Zoom if you want Zoom, if you want the or if you'd rather do it in person, there still are some that are doing it in person also, and some are doing hybrid.
Sue:I can feel that we're gonna maybe do this
Sue:I've never done that one. Good. Too shy.
Deborah:Oh, no. You would love it.
Sue:That sounds great.
Deborah:Yeah.
Sue:That sounds different to a poetry slam?
Deborah:You know, I don't actually know what a poetry slam is. I haven't been involved in that world. I get the feeling that that is maybe a little more competitive, but an open mic is just you get a slot of two to four minutes. You know when you're coming. There's a reading list so you know when you're gonna be on deck. And, usually, there's a feature in advance of the open mic reader, so you get the experience of hearing someone else read at length as well before you read. And then there's usually feedback, at least in the chat when you're on Zoom and certainly live if you're live.
Sue:Thank you. I'm excited about that because I somehow had thought that I I mean, have just been totally laboring in the dark.
Deborah:That's what I was doing. Yeah.
Sue:So a little bit of background for this particular poem, the Goldfish Four.
Deborah:Yeah. I I just didn't expect myself to fall in love with these fish in the way that I did. I think I had been very guarded about investing in a relationship with fish after years of being a parent and, you know, doing everything I could to keep this this tank full of beautiful creatures alive. And regardless of whatever I did, they were always dying on me, and it was heartbreaking, just devastating every time. So we had to get fish to keep the mosquitoes at bay, and I fell in love with them, and I I just had to start to write about them.
Sue:So you wrote them about the fish that you'd kept in your gardens? It sounds like the poem is sort of infused with both the beauty of them and the ephemeral nature of them . And the hiding and the coming into the light and the relationship between light and shadow and dark and turbulence. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about some of the symbolism that's that kinda came to you or that you were writing to.
Deborah:You know, I think sometimes when I write a nature poem, I'm not really thinking about the symbolism at all. I'm just so caught up in the experience of being there in front of something so beautiful and overwhelming. So in this case, I know there's a lot of symbolism that can be read in about absence and longing and the nature the generosity of nature and the fragility of life on earth. I think that's all present. But I also think I really like something that Natalie Diaz said recently in an interview. She's an indigenous poet and just writes gorgeous nature poetry. And she has said she believes that from the indigenous worldview, nature does not have to symbolize something. It is enough
Sue:Something like Freud's cigar is just a cigar.
Deborah:Yeah, like that. Your mother is maybe just your mother.
Sue:Yes, I love that. And maybe it's like abstract painting where the artist may be conveying something about how their internal state Mhmm. But how it hits you is what's inside of you.
Deborah:So it's it's what you see is who you are. That's right. So I kinda love that idea.
Sue:Right. So what but what do you hope people feel, and what do you sort of hope your poem communicates to listeners?
Deborah:I hope it can take people to a still, receptive place similar to the one that I was in when I sat there by the pool. And what always comes to me in that kind of situation is the feeling overwhelmed with the generosity of nature. I know it's fragile, and I know that we are pushing it to the brink, but also there is so much room for resilience. There is so much hope for a rebound if we just leave it alone and get out of its way a little bit.
Sue:Well, thank you so much, Deborah. Was there anything else you wanted to add about your poem before we close out the episode?
Deborah:No. I think that's it. Thank you so much. Great questions.
Sue:And I'm now going to read Deborah's poem, the goldfish four, again. For two cold sunless days, I was afraid the goldfish were all gone again. Perhaps they'd grown so plump, the biggest was as round as a clementine, that they'd become a meal, an easy catch for some marauding raccoon. I scanned the pond, murky now with tannins from a recent drift of wind blown leaves, searching in the shelter of the filter, near the shadowed warmth around the pump and in the bubbly swirl of turbulence beneath the waterfall. I scattered food, flakes of algae, called them silently and waited.
Sue:Waited, but they did not come. For some few hopeful breaths, I thought I'd found one, but it was just a vivid flame of sunshine flickering through the overhanging roses and trembling on the bottom of the pool. The morning of the third day, there they were, as if they'd never vanished, hovering below the falling stream, the ripples dancing and reflecting over them, three rays of saturated color as if they gathered all the light in their orange hearts, multiplied it, and cast it back to us with infinite and measured caritas.
Deborah:And here is the extended prompt for this second podcast: What is it to follow a fish? What would success look like? What is it to hope or long for someone or something? You might want to explore the qualities of absence and or of reunion after prolonged separation. You are encouraged to submit your responses to the prompts to curiositycatpodcasts@gmail.com.
Deborah:We promise we will respond briefly and positively to all submissions, and we may choose a poem to read aloud in future podcasts. We invite you to go to our show notes if you'd like to read the poems in print and see the artwork that we have chosen to go with them. We'd love it if you would leave us a rating and or a review, and please share this podcast with your friends. Thanks for listening.