Diana Rosen : coda

As a journalist and nonfiction book author, I’ve written primarily about tea for many years. As the Chinese saying goes, “One never lives long enough to learn everything there is to know about tea.” I feel the same way about poetry. Every poet I read, every class I take, every textbook I peruse tells me something to consider in the reading and the writing of poetry. While I feel most comfortable writing free verse, the discipline and challenge of switching it up by writing the occasional villanelle or a sonnet, the charm of learning alternative international forms like ghazels or haiku continuously excites me; it’s always a thrill to try something new to me. 

Diana Rosen : part five

How does a poem begin?

Most of my poems begin either with an observation (people, places, things, incidents) during an ordinary day especially as someone who travels frequently by public transportation. Sources for narrative poetry like I enjoy writing are everywhere! The other way my poems begin is via prompts. One of the benefits of attending many freewrite workshops in person and online is that I no longer ponder when given a prompt, but immediately deep dive into subconscious/memory to bring up a topic whose time has arrived to be told.

Diana Rosen : part four

Why is poetry important?

The concision of most poems crystalizes moments of emotions/transitions/connections that humans need to help them through both the everyday and the extraordinary occasion. It’s been wonderful to learn that people who do not ordinarily read poetry turn to it when they need emotional relief during political upheavals or a crisis of illness. We are lucky to live in an area where access to the Internet and online resources in local libraries give people increased access to so many poets around the world. That is important, and possibly unifying, in helping us all move toward understanding that the appearance of differences in culture and creed is superficial; that underneath all of us are similar desires to ease loneliness, give us courage, find love, nourish ourselves with the written word. The poet, Ukrainian-born Ilya Kaminsky, wrote in the New York Times, “I ask how can I help…Finally, an older friend, a lifelong journalist, writes back: ‘Putins come and go. If you want to help, send us some poems and essays. We are putting together a literary magazine.’” Kaminsky adds, “In the middle of war, he is asking for poems.”

Diana Rosen : part three

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

I always have a pile, and dipping in is my reading style, but several books lately have mesmerized me: Kim Dower’s I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom which showcases her delightful wit and sense of irony and a good dash of pathos. She is a master of the twist ending. An older work is Picnic on the Moon from Charles Coe who is both a poet and a singer and his musicality rocks these poems like “Get on Up!” about taking his mom to a James Brown concert. It cheers me no end to re-read it on dark days. I love reading memoir and bios and a version of that in poetry and prose is Marcela Sulak’s Mouth Full of Seeds which I still have not completed. It is so intense a view of sorrow and joy, a meditation on life, especially that of a woman with many roles thrust upon her. Each summer, for my birthday, I buy a coveted book, and this year’s is The Heart of American Poetry edited by Edward Hirsch whose interview on a Library of America zoom-cast delighted and intrigued because he has chosen such a lovely and atypical variety of poets to embrace.

Diana Rosen : part two

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

Line breaks! So many factors go into the decision making, from the visual appearance on the page to the rhythm of them when reading the poem aloud, to choices of stanza styles. I’m sure that’s why a prose format with poetic turns is so appealing, especially when the basis of the poem is narrative rather than lyric.

Diana Rosen : part one

Diana Rosen, an essayist, flash writer, and poet, has work in West Trade Review, Tiferet Journal, Rattle, and As It Ought to be Magazine, among others in the U.S., the UK, India, Canada, and Australia. Her poetry has earned one Best of the Net and two Pushcart nominations and TheTinyPublisher.com released her first full-length poetry book, High Stakes & Expectations, in Spring, 2022. She lives in Los Angeles where her “backyard” is the largest urban green space in the country, the 4,000+acre Griffith Park. She is a content provider for all things tea, coffee, and spices and has published 13 nonfiction books. Please visit www.authory.com/dianarosen to read more of her work. 

How did you first engage with poetry?

Like many children, my first introductions came with hearing the delightful music of rhymed words in Mother Goose tales then Ludwig Bemelmans’ Madeline series (In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines. Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines. In two straight lines they broke their bread. And brushed their teeth and went to bed) read to me by my mother. High school literature classes introduced me not only to Byron/Shelley/Keats but, through a wondrous textbook I still have, poems translated from a slew of foreign languages which gave me an overview to various forms and poetry subjects.  Real life interfered for many years where I read no poetry until a job at the late, great Borders Books introduced me to co-workers who were poets who introduced me to the world of contemporary poets and poetry and the exhilarating idea of free verse. I’ve been reading and writing ever since.