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| Photo Credit: C. Antico, 2012 |
The collection contains two sub-collections, the first is Three Nights in Czech Republic, which is a Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery influenced collection. It documents my trip to the Czech Republic with the Manchester Metros to play UTB Hockey Team in a journalist/diary feel and is quite sporadic in its occurrences.
Sub-collection two, Letters Home, is the gateway to the end of the main collection and is composed of four poems. Within this collection I have included a go at a dramatic monologue (III. Blumenthal's Belk Theater). II. Along the Riva is probably my favourite poem of the Letters Home collection. I believe it is the poem with the most depth. At first it reads like a basic setting, but when approached via a second read, it is the ONLY poem I consider to be a "love" or romantic poem within the entire collection. I purposely avoided this topic as most tend to be very cliche.
The title poem, "Stains" is a pretty humanistic poem. Upon its start, I had no intentions of it turning out the way it did. But I did enjoy creating a Shel Silverstein-esque poem. The qualities or characteristics of the poem are quite childish, but again, at further glance, it is a poem loitered with adult themes/issues.
Of the collection, "Elegy" happens to be one of my favourites. We had an accomplished poet, Adam O'Riordan visit and read to our class; he is also currently an instructor at MMU. He spoke of finding influence from different areas thru observation and this poem definitely falls underneath that umbrella.
As a first collection, and really a first attempt at poetry, I am very proud of how the poems finished-- from first draft to revising & editing, they've come a long way. I give a lot of credit to Graeme Roberts, a peer in my poetry workshop for his great editing advice. Not only was he applauding of the poems (even in draft form), he was critical in his tips to better the final product. Being able to balance the two is difficult, but Graeme was very helpful in both areas. A second thanks goes out to Louise Soothill who was also a tremendous help with the final poem in Three Nights in Czech Republic. It is difficult to be as surprising as her poems are so I turned to her expertise for advice to add "spice" to the poem.
And finally, a HUGE thanks to my tutor, poet, Jean Sprackland, who without taking her course, I would not have had an opportunity to build creative writing techniques within poetry. Also, Stains would not have been compiled as a final grade collection!
You may view Stains in its entirety HERE.
"I watch the sea lap softly against the harbor wall, my fingers
complacent against the warm stone as if pressed to your hands."
Notations: Objectivist, not confessionalist.
