Interview with Belle Waring and Kathleen Nesbitt’s English 205: Intro to Poetry Class at Spalding University

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Whitney: Hello. We are a class of 36 who have been studying poetry this semester. We have worked on close analysis of texts as well as incorporating secondary material into our writing about poetry. Some of us do write poetry, but for the most part we are readers and appreciators of it. The class consists of English majors, education
majors, business majors, psychology majors, and nursing majors. A handful of nursing majors will be graduating next month.

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Sarabande Books: Hi, all. This is Nickole Brown at Sarabande Books. You all are very early! As you could see from the earlier text below, I was chatting with fiction writer Mary Ann Taylor Hall this afternoon. Belle,
however, should be here in 20 minutes or so.

Sarabande Books: I will be here for the chat, so if anyone has any questions about Sarabande Books or this chatroom, please feel free to ask.

Belle Waring: just logged on.

Sarabande Books: Hi, Belle! Looks like we are all here!

Belle Waring: Hello, everyone. It is a beautiful evening here.

Whitney: Hello Belle Waring, from English 205

Whitney: Are you ready for our questions?

Belle Waring: Yes, please fire away.

Whitney: Many of the poems in your book have poverty and violence as key factors. What impels you to write about these?

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Belle Waring: I suppose because I've seen both of these things so much. When you work as a nurse you don't get to choose your patients. You take them as they come. Many of my patients suffered from poverty and violence.

Whitney: Your "nursing poems" shatter the romanticism some associate with the profession. Is this deliberate? When did you lose your idealism? Is composing poetry an outlet for that frustrations?

Belle Waring: just logged on.

Belle Waring: just logged on.

Belle Waring: Sorry, the network kicked me out. Wait just a moment please while I answer your question, my response got lost.

Sarabande Books: Just a note while Belle is figuring this out-- if you want a copy of this interview on your e mail, make sure to register in the Discussion Area.

Belle Waring: Sorry, got kicked out again!

Belle Waring: just logged on.

Belle Waring: OK, about idealism. Mine is still intact. I have all the values I had when I entered the profession. I think romanticism is the enemy of idealism.

Sarabande Books: This is a pretty high-traffic time of day... Anything I can do, Belle?

Belle Waring: Nickole, AOL kicked me out twice within five minutes. I think this is rush hour.

Belle Waring: Let's just keep kicking at it. Hang on, everybody.

Belle Waring: I think romanticisim is the enemy of idealism because roman. is based on delusion, illusion. Just because you see things as they are doesn't mean you lose your idealistic values, it just means you adjust to what is really there.

Whitney: When was "Forgery" written? The speaker's attitude seems less passive than other speakers in your poems do. How did the speaker reach this stage in her nursing career?

Belle Waring: I think I wrote the Forgery about five years ago. I don't know how to answer the question about the nursing career. THe story is invented.

Whitney: Writters make the best liars! That's why we learned to separate the poet from the speaker, when we talk about poetry.

Whitney: Why di dyou call the book Dark Blonde? Is there a reason to call special attention to the poem :"Shots"?

Belle Waring: Yes, especially since I am also a fiction writer.

Belle Waring: Well, I called it Dark BLonde because it was the working title and it just stuck. We probably would have cut Shots because there are too many other poems like it, but it had the oxymoron in it and we needed that. I guess I liked the title well enough because I always felt like I was mainstream, blonde american type, and at the same time very much an outsider. I could see things from a point of view that was not so mainstream. Also I liked it cause it sounded a little like pulp. Like Chandler.

Whitney: We had a lively discussion of "Pick it Up" and the symbolism of the armadillo. Would you be willing to tell us what you were thinking about by using the armadillo as a symbol?

Belle Waring: Well, to say I was thinking is giving me a lot of credit. I was teaching at Vermont College MFA program at the time and I gave this very balky student an exercise. I thought, I really should try this
myself if I think I'm so smart. Ha! I started to free associate and voila. I liked the armadillo. He was very armored but very vulnerable. Very peculiar, an evolutionary vestige I think, although the bio majors will have to help me hear. He was a polyvalent image, hitting a bunch of different notes at once. It seemed to fit.

Whitney: What inspired you to write--So what would you have done? Its really wierd!

Belle Waring: Your class is very well prepared and asking very detailed questions.Are these responses helpful or would you like more expansive answers?

Belle Waring: Hold on, our questions crossed. Let me back up.

Whitney: More expansive answers please--there is a lot of arugment around here!

Belle Waring: Let's see, "So What Would You Have Done?" was based on a true story. I did have a friend who died and while he was ill I used to travel to see him. The part about the kid with the gun I invented. I was working with kids in the city and they were facing a lot of violence, at home and on the street. I wanted to connect the speaker with something, so she would not be the only one facing death of a loved one. I wanted the poem not to be whiny, like I was the only one suffering. Thus the weird connection with the talisman, the kid, the gun.

Belle Waring: Is that answer more helpful?

Whitney: yes

Whitney: In you poem "Ending Green" the speaker takes a postcard of the "Angel and the Pilgrim" could yo elaborate on the siginificance of this line?

Belle Waring: just logged on.

Belle Waring: Very sorry, got kicked out again, ACK! Hang on while I type response

Belle Waring: That painting, the angel and the pilgrim, is a Burne-Jones painting. I am going to now try posting each sentence separately. Maybe it will not kick me out so fast that way. Hang on. this will be choppy

Belle Waring: Anyway, the speaker takes the card as a talisman. She herself is a kind of pilgrim, very lost in the briars like the pilgrim in the painting. The busdriver is a kind of angel.

Antonina & Kalisha: I noticed that "In the Ladies...", "For my third cousin", and "Pick it up" something bad happens to the men. Is this significant?

Belle Waring: This is very corny when I put it this way, but that's the way I saw it. it's no joke to get shut up inthe morgue at night. And she really is trapped in her life, not just in the morgue. The morgue thing just got her attention.

Belle Waring: Antonina and Kalisha, I am not sure what you mean here. Can you be a little more specific?

Belle Waring: Did you guys want to resubmit the question?

Antonina & Kalisha: does masculinity represent a certain kind of imagery to you?

Belle Waring: I don't know what you mean here by masculinity. I see things more in terms of character, real life people. Tragic things happen to them, either because they get sick, through no fault of their
own, or they get lost and confused and act out, or they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. I saw a lot of people leave home very young, life took them, and they never quite found out who they were. They
didn't get educated, they had to work. Things did not go so well for them. They did the best they could. i have seen a lot of people like that. And I will probably see more. Half a million kids are in foster care in teh U.S. I wonder what will become of them. I think a lot about things like that.

Allison: Most of your poems are about violence and poverty. What compelled you to take a sudden turn in tone toward the end of your book, especially in the poem "He Said Yes"? Does this poem relate to a true story? If so what is behind the peom?

Belle Waring: just logged on.

Belle Waring: Hang on, I'm getting good at getting kicked out and logging on.

Sarabande Books: Belle, give me a call later; your modem connection may be a little slow.

Belle Waring: Well, that was Sarah Gorham's idea. She is a great editor. She said there should be an upturn in tone at the end, and she was right. THe year before I finished the book, there were too many deaths, people I knew. We had to lighten things up. The book was becoming nothing but elegies. He said Yes is not really an upturn, it is just a very clearsighted angry poem. It's an old poem, actually. I wrote it right after my first book came out. Ten years ago.

Whitney: In "People Think All Wrong About Manhood" and "The LADIES Room. . . " as well as "The Brothers on the Trash Truck" you're always referring to the people's eyes. What do eyes signify for you?

Belle Waring: You are a very close reader. I salute you. Well, if you describe people's eyes, it is shorthand for how they look. You don't have to say his hair was purple or brown. If you describe the look in someone's eyes, the reader gets a good idea of the physical characteristics and (what is more important) the intelligence, the state
of alertness and interest, the emotional state...it's very concise to describe the eyes. It's also very difficult.

Whitney: It's admirable how you use language to surprise us, shifting words in different order than expected. How do you continue to perceive language in new ways so that you can bring these discoveries to readers?

Belle Waring: Thank you. I had wonderful teachers, from my grandfather to high school to grad school. Also my mom sang so I got my ear from her. I live in a city with a lot of different linguistic influences. I think some of this is just genetic, I have a musical ear. When somebody says something different, some regionalism, or some little kid who makes a grammar error in speech, sometimes it is very original and perceptive. I register things like that. They may be incorrect. But they may lead you to listen harder to your own mind when it is trying to talk to you .
THis is last image is from an eight year old student I had: "When you write a poem, it's like your mind is talking to you."

Whitney: Any questions for us?

Belle Waring: Nickole, are we running to 7 or 7:30? Do you want to go a couple of minutes late to make up for all the time I got kicked out?

Belle Waring: Here's a small question. What do you need from poetry?

Sarabande Books: Yes, it's about time to go. Kathleen, before you go, please give me your e-mail so that I can send you a copy of this chat.

Stephanie: I need to feel like I am going to come out of my skin after
reading it.

Belle Waring: Thanks everyone, sorry the connection was not so good. You
asked very good questions and I can tell you are studying hard. The main
thing is just to find literature that you love, and let it nourish you.
Best of luck to you all.

Paul: just logged off!

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Belle Waring: Shall we log off now or is there a burning question?

Stephanie: Thanks so much-- your words are beautiful

Whitney: Thank you very much for your time. It was well worth the
experience!

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Whitney: We're not on fire!

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Belle Waring: OK, then I'll talk to Nickole by phone for follow up. It may be that In future I need to schedule these chats at times that are less busy. Thanks for taking part of this. It's an ongoing experiment.

katie: just logged off!

Whitney: Nikole, How do the students register their email with you

Sarabande Books: Simply re-enter the Discussion Area and click "Register with us". Any info on Kathleen Nesbitt's e-mail?

Belle Waring: just logged off!

Sarabande Books: Thank you all! Please contact me if I can be of any further assistance.