Some children pick up the ways of their parents, while others take a completely different route. In this episode of Poetry on the Page. Northern Illinois University professor Amy Newman and WNIJ’s Yvonne Boose discuss a poem that shows how children pay close attention to what their parents are doing. Here's the conversation:
Yvonne:
All right, Amy, thank you so much for joining me for another chat and episode of Poetry on the Page. Can you tell me about the book that you have in front of you?
Amy:
Sure. This is Lynn Emanuel, from her book Hotel Fiesta, published by University of Georgia Press and she's a poet who uses imagery vivaciously. As you'll hear in this poem, she can make a metaphor grow into a wild image. And I love this poem, because it's about a daughter's complex memories of her mother who drank, and it's called “Frying Trout While Drunk.”
Mother is drinking to forget a man
Who could fill the woods with invitations:
Come with me he whispered and she went
In his Nash Rambler, its dash
Where her knees turned green
In the radium dials of the 50's.
When I drink it is always 1953,
Bacon wilting in the pan on Cook Street
And mother, wrist deep in red water,
Laying a trail from the sink
To a glass of gin and back.
She is a beautiful, unlucky woman
In love with a man of lechery so solid
You could build a table on it
And when you did the blues would come to Visit.
I remember all of us awkwardly at dinner,
The dark slung across the porch,
And then mother’s dress falling to the floor,
Buttons ticking like seeds spit on a plate.
When I drink I am too much like her—
The knife in one hand and the other
The trout with a belly white as my wrist.
I have loved you all my life
She told him and it was true
In the same way that all her life
She drank, dedicated to the act itself,
She stood at this stove
And with the care of the very drunk
Handed him the plate.
Yvonne:
Oh, my goodness, you know, what stood out for me in that particular poem, is the radium dials of the 50s.
Amy:
Do you know about those?
Yvonne:
I do. I don't remember them. I wasn't there. But I did do a story about that — there was like, a play. And I can't remember what city was doing it. And they were talking about that. So that stood out to me, the way she put that that little line in there, gives you so much.
Amy:
It gives you an idea of the time and an image of those dials. And absolutely, and a lot of people don't know, but have that visual of those kind of illuminated dials in a car from that time period. For me, I love when she says that she's an “unlucky woman/In love with a man of lechery so solid/you can build a table on it.” I mean, that is a — and then “when you do all the blues would come to visit” — that as an extended metaphor.
Yvonne:
I love that. I love that. So, I see what you were saying in regards to the metaphors and how it grows. And yeah, that the blues come to visit. That is wonderful writing. Is there anything else you want to tell the audience about this particular book or the author?
Amy:
Well, published by University of Georgia Press and let me see if I can find the date. She's… this is a while ago; 1984, yeah. 1984, it's a while ago, but the whole book is like this, and has beautiful work and everybody should go get a copy.
Yvonne:
And I can see your eyes light up as you read these poems. What does… going over this work, what does it do for your soul, Amy?
Amy:
And so, when I find poetry that is so well-wrought and moving, I feel like I lose my own world and step into the poet's world. It's kind of invasive, like I feel like I'm taking off my skin and getting in their skin. Yeah, your face suggests that that's not a good idea, but it feels… it's transportive, it gives me a look into other worlds and other personalities. I appreciate that growth.
Yvonne:
Amy Newman, Northern Illinois University English Professor, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today.
Amy:
Thank you, Yvonne.
