[Janet Kenny]

Julie,
Mothers have this secret gift of knowing what will hurt their daughters.
Your poems crackle with life and extremely civilized wildness.

The last line of "Used Book" is perfect.

Re-entry, Post Katrina is devastating.

Your poems are direct. I love them.
Janet

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited November 29, 2008).]

[Julie Kane]

Rhina, now you have me laughing, because of your expert memory. I can't believe that you remembered the poem that incorporated that line! What an honor to have stuck like a burr in your memory-banks.

And Janet, it is so good to hear from you, and thank you so much for the lovely things you said about the poems. I am fascinated by your prior career as an opera singer, and also curious as to what parallels (if any) you might sense between the two arts of singing and writing poems.

[Janet Kenny]

Originally posted by Julie Kane:

And Janet, it is so good to hear from you, and thank you so much for the lovely things you said about the poems. I am fascinated by your prior career as an opera singer, and also curious as to what parallels (if any) you might sense between the two arts of singing and writing poems.

Julie,
There's a great deal of similarity between singing some opera and writing poetry. Line rules everything and meter has to be subtle inside the all important line. Direct expression without barriers. Words are loaded but must never dominate individually except when that is the point of the line. Consonants are even more important than vowels. I think that's why I'm always arguing against line caps. I use them sometimes for comic or dramatic effect but for me they work against the whole point of a poem. I hate readers who pause at the end of each line. I like readings to flow with just enough suggestion of meter to carry the beat. That's unless it's a Scottish Border ballad in which case I'm all for thumping

My credo.
Janet, who wishes she could do as she says.

[Gail White]

I am proud to be able to claim Julie as a fellow citizen of Louisiana. She helps to brighten the state. Several of her "bartender" poems have been quoted here, but I'd like to add my favorite:

THE BARTENDER QUITS DRINKING

The Mater Dolorosa parking lot
is always full on Fridays during Lent.
I hear them chanting Stations of the Cross

as I double-park for the pastry shop,
the boozeless season giving us a bent
for doughnuts, candy, soda pop.

Twenty years ago, a schoolgirl, hot
in my coat, a lace mantilla on my head,
I swayed like them through Stations of the Cross,

Thinking about forbidden choc-
olate ice cream, and dreading the dinner ahead:
fishsticks parceled out in meager lots.

Though I am not one of the good who got
a smudge of ashes to make amends
to Jesus for his time on the cross,

it's funny how the drinking stopped
to coincide with the start of Lent.
I mark each sober day with a cross.
I come to joy in a season of loss.

[Deborah Warren]

Julie, I hadn't encountered your Mermaid Story. What an incantatory beauty! I'm enjoying your work immensely. Particle Physics is my other favorite of this set of poems.

[Tim Murphy]

I read the ms of Jazz Funeral at 4:00 this morning. What a start to the day, definitely put on your buy list. Particle Physics is my favorite in this group, too, Deborah.

[Julie Kane]

Now I know how Tom Sawyer felt, eavesdropping upon the encomiums at his own funeral! Janet, thank you so much for for those insights into singing and metrics. Gail, I should have added, in response to Leslie's interview question, that one of the best things about living in Natchitoches is being able to meet up with Gail White every now and then when I am headed to south Louisiana. Deborah and Tim, I am so glad that you two singled out "Particle Physics," which I think shows my love of (and influence by) Donne probably more than anything else I've written.