JUNE

ByLee Ann

Every gardener has their favourite season. What is yours? For me, it’s spring, and in particular, early spring. When daffodil time overlaps with the riot of tulip colour, I’m more energized, hopeful, and renewed than I am at any other time of the year.

The burst of energy that is early spring

Far too soon for me, the daffodils droop. Then the tulips start to fade and I wander the garden, snapping their blooms off to feed the bulb for next year.

The passing of this early spring season reminds me: change is the only constant.

No deep philosophy here, I’m just reminding myself to savour every season as it takes centre stage. (Okay, yes, I mean in life as well as in the garden!) To me, that means observing closely, noticing and maybe writing about what’s happening, or taking some photos. This savouring, I’ve found, seems to extend the length of the season. It also helps me to remember, which is another form of savouring.

As the tulips fade the irises start to show their colour

Here’s something else I’ve discovered. When I observe closely, not only do I see what is, but I can also see the next season waiting in the wings. The tulip petals fall and I notice sturdy stalks of iris, the edges of their fat buds already showing colour. So I get this delicious little hint of delights to come. Have you noticed that, in life as well as in the garden?

Right now in my garden, as if to temper the loss of spring, is the glory that is June. Not for nothing has this month been celebrated by artists of all stripes for all time. It’s the prettiest of seasons, I think, and the most lush. It also marks the end of the brief time when not much has gone wrong yet – no drought, no insect infestation, no mistakes by the gardener – and all is possible. June is the blush of youth in her prime!

May you savour the beauty of June in your neighbourhood. May you also enjoy to the fullest the gifts of whatever phase of life you may be living! And please take a moment to savour my tributes to this gorgeous month: haiku with photos, “Irises” and “Peonies.”

Lee Ann

P.S. For those of you who are curious: a haiku is a structured poem first found in Japanese literature in the 17th century. It consists of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world. Aren’t you glad you asked?

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ARTIST AS WITNESS

ByLee Ann

A key role of any artist is as a witness to life. Artists do more than live life. They observe life. They reflect about what they observe and they transform those observations and reflections into art. Think about it: a poem, a song, a dance, a painting – any form of art can be triggered because an artist first witnessed life.

Lucky us! Art in any of its manifestations can provide us with a thoughtful, clear depiction of what life was like in a place and time far different than our own.

I’ve been thinking about this lately because a book of my poetry and photography has been accepted into the Ottawa Archives COVID collection. This collection – of photos, correspondence, artwork and other records – has been created to show future generations what it was really like to live in Ottawa through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of course I am delighted to think about people 50 or 100 years from now looking through my Poetry Art! (Sample here.) More than that, I find myself grateful for artists. By their very nature, in their role as witness, they create all types of evocative work. We all then benefit from their observations, their reflections and of course, their ability to transform these into art.

Here are two of my favourite examples of artists in their key role as a witness to life:

  • John McRae. In his famous poem, “In Flanders Fields,” he gives us his observations of the battlefield and then transcends this into a rallying cry from the dead.
  • Irene Sankoff and David Hein. Their musical, “Come From Away” depicts Gander, Newfoundland taking in 6700 people diverted by 9/11. The actual hardships are transformed into words, music and dance.

What about you? What artist-as-witness piece(s) of art impress you?

Lee Ann

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ART FROM REAL LIFE

ByLee Ann
Homework: spinach. Artistic inspiration?

I’ve been thinking lately that I have nothing to write about. This winter I’ve been sick. I injured my back from coughing so hard when I was sick. I’ve been taking a horticulture course at U Guelph, and I’ve been writing for other people. In other words, no artistic inspiration in my real life!

Luckily a friend alerted me to an online poetry course given by Governor General Award-winning poet Lorna Crozier (thanks, M2!) And the very first lesson in that course reminded me that real life – in all its pain and all its glory – inspires any artist who takes the time to observe.

Observing is a skill, and it’s a critical part of the creative process. Turns out, I did not have to look beyond what has been happening in my real life to be inspired. We received two prompts in this lesson. One was to write from a line in a poem called “Peaches” by Peter Davison:

a mouthful of language to swallow

What a great line, I wish I had written it! But I did write from it, which is just as great. The second prompt was to write what’s called an “apostrophe” poem. That’s a poem addressed to an animal, an inanimate object, an idea, or a person who is absent. I did not have to look far to find what I wanted to address.

So there you have it. Often real life does provide the source for inspiration. It’s right there if only we look closely.

Winter beauty: a gift of the season! And may be artistic inspiration as well.

Why not try it yourself? Observing, I mean. What do you see/hear/feel when you take the time to observe what is happening in your own real life? You may not arrive at a new poem, but I’m betting you will benefit. May you gain some insight, recognize the gifts of this current life phase, or at the very least, enjoy immersing yourself in the beauty that is unique to the winter season.

Meanwhile, please enjoy the two poems I created directly from my real life. “A Mouthful of Language to Swallow” and “To the Muscles Surrounding my L2 to L5 Vertebrae.”

Lee Ann

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WHEN “I” DOESN’T MEAN “ME”: Lesson #1 From My Latest Poem

ByLee Ann

It’s easy to assume that when a writer uses the first person in a poem or story, the “I” she’s referring to is herself. Not so! Well, sometimes it’s so, but more often than not the writer has made a creative choice, and there are many different reasons to decide to write something in the first person. This decision is a big part of the creative process.

Here’s an example: a poem I recently wrote with a first-person narrator. Click here to read it; I’ll wait while you do that.

waiting patiently while you read

What’s Real and What’s Not

OK, welcome back! Now, a number of people have told me how interested they were to read about my grandmother and the experience I described from childhood. The thing is, I had no such grandmother and no such experience. In fact, the entire back yard scene was conjured up by my imagination during a “free write” session in a poetry workshop. I saw the scene clearly in my mind and wrote it down, up to the point where the young girl is trailing after the tall, muttering old woman. Certain elements – the rooftops, the clothesline – matched my actual grandmother’s back yard. Beyond that, the key elements – the sniffing, the predictions, even the wicker basket – all made up.

My Mimi’s clothesline did not look like this

I actually decided to make this a first-person narrator because first-person is the best way to give readers direct, unfiltered access to what’s going on inside a character’s head. The character herself is telling the story, not a separate narrator once removed. It’s more immediate than if I’d written “she set out to practice”, or “she learned”. Try replacing “I” with “she” when re-reading the poem, and see if you agree.

Time to Marinate

When I wrote the scene, I knew I wanted to expand it into something, but I didn’t know exactly what. So I filed the scene away and didn’t look at it again for over six months. The creative process involves a lot of marinating. I’ve written about this already in this series: draft versions take time to develop into a finished product. They benefit from being set aside for a while. In this case, when I read the scene again with the fresh eyes that six months’ distance gave me, I immediately started to wonder about how this young girl character might respond to her grandmother and this power. Which led me to the second half of the poem, and the decision to use a first-person narrator.

“Rain’s coming,” she’d say.

In the next installment of this series, I’ll write some more about the second half of the poem, as I continue to “unmask” the creative process for you. Meanwhile, remember: beware the temptation to assume that the use of “I” in a story or poem means the writer is writing about herself! It’s a choice she makes as part of the creative process.

Lee Ann

FASCINATING WOMEN YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF

ByLee Ann

More and more historians have started probing history to uncover fascinating women and their contributions over millennia. Historical novelists, too, are telling the stories of women, either known historical people or characters based on what we know women experienced and accomplished in the past.

In my role as a features writer for the Historical Novel Society, I get to read new releases of historical novels. I interview authors to discover the people and events that have inspired them to write their books.

Several authors I’ve interviewed recently have told the stories of women I’m betting you’ve never heard of. So as summer softens into cooler days and earlier darkness, why not explore history through the lives and contributions of some fascinating women?

Below are links to my author interviews. You can find the books at your favourite independent bookseller, or your local library. Happy reading!

Lee Ann

The Stolen Lady, by Laura Morelli. OK, you probably have heard of the enigmatic Lisa Gherardini… or as she’s more often called, Mona Lisa. But did you know that the staff of The Louvre spirited most of the museum’s collection (including Lisa’s portrait) out of Paris just before the Nazis arrived to plunder the treasures? Women drove the escape vehicles!


A Most Clever Girl, by Stephanie Marie Thornton. Who was the person who ran the largest Soviet spy ring in the United States during the Cold War? A woman by the name of Elizabeth Bentley. Her confession to the FBI not only identified 41 Soviet sources operating throughout the U.S., it essentially took down the golden age of Soviet espionage, which had been ongoing for over 20 years.

Mrs. Lincoln’s Sisters, by Jennifer Chiaverini. You likely know at least a little bit about Abraham Lincoln’s wife. What about her sisters? Mary Todd Lincoln’s relationships with them were some of the most important in her life. Elizabeth Todd Edwards and Emilie Todd Helm both lived extraordinary lives in their own right, and were present during a particularly transformative time in America’s history.


Dark Earth, by Rebecca Stott. Did you know: under the remains of medieval London lies buried the once great Roman city of Londinium. It was abandoned around 420AD for reasons unknown. So much remains unknown about this period of history that it’s known as the Dark Ages. Author Stott delves into the lives of women during this time through two female characters who flee to the haunted city. Isla is a master sword maker, a skill forbidden to women. Her sister Blue is a master of myth and magic.

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PERSPECTIVE

ByLee Ann

The creative process has a lot to do with perspective. I was reminded of this a couple of years ago when I went to a painting party. Over a few hours, an artist showed a group of us how to create a simple painting of a sailboat at night. No two pieces of art, even though they represented the same subject, were the same. Each nascent artist brought a specific perspective when creating their painting.

Of course, an artist’s skill level also plays a role in the resulting piece. Do you know the most important skill any artist needs to hone? Observation.

Keen observation: the building block of artistic perspective!

Think about it. Even in the context of the painting party, each person’s ability to observe – the interrelation of the boat’s parts, how parallel lines converging give the illusion of depth and distance – in large part determined the success of the final product.

Observation + Perspective = Art

Poet and author Molly Peacock goes so far as to say that a poet’s skills are “noticing and comparing one thing to another.” She says a poet must become “an expert in observing.” I think this goes for all artists, whether their medium is poetry or dance, painting or song.

What an artist notices and what they think about that is the heart of any piece of artwork. If an artist is very skilled at observing and then expressing from their observations – well, they’ll have endless creative output! Plus, a skilled artist often brings to us new insight via their work.

If you want to read a delightful example of observation and perspective, look for American poet Alicia Suskin Ostriker’s book, The Old Woman, the Tulip and the Dog (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014). It’s a collection of over 30 different poems, each written from three perspectives: that of an old woman, a tulip, and a dog.

Meanwhile, why not try practicing keen observation of what is in your world? Notice what you notice! Then express it somehow, even in a post-it note that you stick on your monitor. You just might begin to awaken your inner artist!

Until next time, here is my tribute to Ostriker: “Aging from Three Perspectives”.

Lee Ann