And I "third" Rose's nomination.

Yes, Janet, please write an obituary for Maz.

Dear Rose, and everyone,

I'm not on firm ground here, since I didn't know the poet at all. But this is the second time, since I've signed on to the 'Sphere, that I've heard of a fine poet who has passed away without leaving a published collection. It seems like a terrible shame, and I'm just trying to think of alternatives to letting her work simply disappear.

Of course, the history of literature is filled with cases of people who have banded together to preserve someone's work in cases like these. Saussure comes immediately to mind: he never published his Course in General Linguistics, his students got together after his passing, compared the notes they'd made, and put together a book. And there are of course a number of poets who published little or nothing in their lifetime (Emily Dickinson is a good example) whose work was collected by others posthumously. Imagine if someone had found Dickinson's notebooks, and not taken steps to preserve them!

And the circumstances here seem to indicate there is no family member to make it her mission to be certain the poems are gathered and preserved. It seems a worthy goal, but if someone were going to do it, it would have to be her friends and colleagues. Of course, the world has changed since those two cases I've mentioned, but in some ways those changes have made such a project easier.

So, here's an idea. A web site could be built where her poems could be preserved. Domain name registration and web hosting would cost under $80 for a year, and we could likely find something for even less than that. I would imagine a collection could be taken up to cover this cost. I'm pretty sure we have enough web coding experience among us to put up a simple site collecting all her available poems. We also have enough bibliographers, editors, and librarians here to make sure things are done well. I don't know what would happen to the site in the long run, but if it were up long enough things like the internet archive and the wayback machine would go crawling through, and preserve her work for a good long while.

Perhaps this idea is impractical, or wrong-headed. Perhaps it's been tried before with unsatisfactory results. I don't know the history of such things, I've only been around for three months. But it would be a shame to have the life work of a much beloved poet simply disappear without a trace...

Thanks,

Bill

I'm willing to draft a letter.

I'd like those who love her work to send me the poem they most admire.

I think that it would be best if the letter is signed by several people from different English-speaking countries. That would show how she reached beyond Poole and made a powerful impression on a great many poets. If any established poets are included that will add conviction to what is said.
Of course the letter would have to be approved by everyone who signs the letter.

I'll put up my email address now.
mnemonic@bigpond.net.au

PS: I've copied or printed out all the links in this thread.

What terrible news.

I remember Maz/Grasshopper from many places, she had such a presence.

This thread demonstrates a little of the impact that she had.

Thank you Janet.

Jan

A terrible loss.
Such an exceptional mind and poet: maturity and depth enmeshed with a high-blown sense of mischief and play (I loved the "Jerome" poems).

What saddens me deeply are the circumstances of her death, and what they seem to say about her life. To me and others here she clearly guarded her privacy, a choice that needs to be respected. OTOH, I suppose somehow I always assumed at least some of the online 'community' must know her more personally. I'm surprised how few posting here seem to know little more of her beyond her online persona. How regrettable it seems that a woman so many of us cherished for her literary gifts may not have known that while she lived.


David Anthony writes:
I had that sense as well; here's a poem (posted for critique in 2005) Margaret indicated was about someone else, though I've always wondered if that was true.

Shopping as an Act of Faith

Light buoys her up. Dawn parts
the blinds and burns into her ribs.
She dresses slowly, binds
silk around her torso, listens
to the radio, aware of incoming waves
through her flesh and her wet organs,
deflected by her skeleton into a shimmer
on each high note. A soprano
sings; garden thrushes hunt for snails.
Somewhere in the sky, there is a room
without hardness, without vibration.

Outside the air is green. Deep draughts
of it are heavy, bread in her lungs. People
push too close. Fragile as a wishbone,
she keeps close to the railings. Her radio still plays,
open-throated at the window: Carmen's red flowers
trailing farewell down the street. The music
drops away from her ears, petal by petal. Clouds
shutter the sun. The light begins to leak away.

...........................(Maz)

I'm reading my correspondence with Maz. I was worried about her poems being sufficiently and safely published, so I asked about it. It would be good to know which press was nagging her.

Me: How do you feel about publishing in general, Margaret, if you don't mind me asking. Are you ambitious about publishing?

Maz: Re publishing, I really couldn't care less. I've had the editor of a small UK poetry press nagging at me for over 2 years to send him a 60 page manuscript--but ohmigod--60 pages of poems I'd have to consider 'finished'--the idea makes me weak at the knees. Truth is that what I enjoy is the process of writing the poems, gathering them up afterwards and scraping them into some sort of order for a book--nightmare. I don't kid myself that I'm a 'Poet'--I just can't seem to stop writing poems for some reason.

That's beautifully revealing, Mary, and so characteristic of the Maz we knew.
I'm sure she won't mind if her admirers do the job she was reluctant to do for herself. Yes, how do we track down the male small-press editor? There aren't that many, but they're so slow to respond......

Small Press Editor
 

Twas I quoth he!