The Turn of the Mind to That Shaded Place - A G Mampel

The poems in this book are about ordinary life; things we see every day. Whether they are ants crossing our kitchen counter like the military, or the sound of water over rocks, an unannounced cry from the nursery, the hummingbird sucking up sugar water, my antique car with top and windows down. Sometimes it can be a mere trifle; a bird with a twig in its mouth, a flower rising from the underside of the large rock I sit upon; it can be the sudden rustle of wings from a cornfield. The subjects for poetry are everywhere among the living walkways of animated life, even in the solitude of the stones lying at my feet. One of my firstpublished poemswas about a high school girl that someone referred to as "common." In the sense it was spoken there is no such word as "common!" Nor for that matter is anything in life "common." To me life is uncommon. It is lyrical and full of surprise. This became clear to me when I heard Dylan Thomas read "A Child's Christmas in Wales." I loved the rhythmic flow of his words and the emotions they evoked. When writing my own poems, I fell into his cadence and rhythmic patterns to such a degree that I had to stoplistening to the musical allurement of his words and beginto search for my own voice. I moved on to other poets whose meter and cadence also influenced the forms I chose. Among these were Richard Wilbur, James Dickey, W. B. Yeats and Emily Dickinson. These poets and others helped me to see that poems flow more freely when unencumbered by needless limitations i.e., fear ofpunishing criticism, a single way to look at the poem, punctuation and forms that may inhibit both reader and poet. There were also other poets who influenced me. William Butler Yeats taught me about the sound in poetry. For Yeats it was not enough to simply choose the right words in their best order, but the right sounding words. Robert Frost referred to sound as the "gold in the ore." I am convinced that I never felt more alive or had more enthusiasm for the things around me, than when my eyes actually-lookedout -and - listenedto - the natural and human world - and heardwhat it had to say. In the Hebrew story of creation, Adam and Eve were asked by God to care for the earth. God said, "till it and keep it." It fascinates me that the word in the Hebrew, "Shamar" means not only "to keep," it alsomeans "to observe." Suddenly I became aware that I amput on this planet to observe both the human and natural world. I amhere to look at life as I really seeit. How else could life teach me about being truly human? Observe - Look - See! These three words influence my poetry. I put them on my refrigerator to remind me that all of life is to be observed - looked at - listenedto. I amconvinced that looking closely at the human and natural world makesme more alive. I findthat poetry isonly true for me when I amfully present in the moment. It is in that moment when the "commonplace" is looked at and observed that I canfeel what it isto be a living creature."