Lisa Young

A few weeks ago I went to a poetry weekend near Rochester (on East Hill Farm). Here are a few excerpts from the journal I kept while I was away to give you a flavour of some of my time spent there… June 24 I’m just staring into bliss – ferns – a fan of trees hugging the pond on the other side. I’m dumbfounded or is it lulled by the beauty of this place. A very loud wasp is right behind me. The yellow irises are bowing to the pond – are they naturally this droopy or are they dying?  Love and Death. Li-Young Lee says there are no other subjects in poetry – everything else is just dross. I’ll go and pick an iris – I must! There are so many stories afoot. When you’re out on a farm everyone has a story to tell. Apparently the population of deer is so high in Rochester that they eat all the flowers in the city. You can light the water on fire in the creek near Alice’s place – because of the natural gas. I also heard the story about the chaplain who was two hours la...

Who are my favourite poets? I tend to think in terms of specific poems that I like, instead of poets. Here are two poems worth taking the time to enjoy: " Little Ache " by Li-Young Lee and " Failing and Flying " by Jack Gilbert. I was happy to find these on the net. I'm guilty of not always remembering who wrote what, and I thought I'd never find them again.  In the poetry group I work with, we read poems that inspire us - before we begin writing. It's a great way to tap into your creativity. Many of the poems I like are not by "famous" people. There's a myth going around that people in general don't read literary journals...but they have some of the best content. Edgy, innovative and surprising. If reading a journal, I always read the poetry first. Mostly poetry seduces me away from fiction. I make more time to write poetry. So fiction is always taking second place.  I have a few abandoned novels - or...