The Song In the Room: Six Women Poets

It all started one fine January day, in 2020, when Meg Robinson brought together women artists for her annual luncheon. She believed that artists had a lot to tell each other: complaints, secrets, marketing tips; and she was right. Sculptors, writers, painters, designers, musicians talked about what they wanted from their solitary arts; and what they were willing to give to get it. But more than anything, we spoke about how artists manage to keep going sometimes when the world doesn’t seem to want anything we have.\nAs the newly appointed state Poet Laureate, I planned to spend my tenure teaching. I’d been working with teens throughout the state. My job was to lead them to language that would serve them best. A person from our women’s “Creativity” lunch group said, “How in the world can anyone teach poetry? It’s such an esoteric art.” I replied that I could not sum it up, right there and then, but I’d love to show anyone who was interested. Several women said, “I’d like to try my hand,” or words like that. And six women left me their names with email addresses. A lawyer, journalist, technical writer, painter, musician, and graphic artist—I had my group, women with multiple talents.\nWe met twice in-person, softening the earth with writing exercises; and then COVID struck, and we resorted to Zoom meetings, alternate Fridays for sixteen months. What wonderful, brave, exhilarating stories showed up on the page.\nCritics may say “Why publish the beginning of the journey? Why not wait to become professionals?” I say, “Why not collect these poems?” These poems are samples from many written over the months, each one a talisman, recording a certain time in history— a memory box, a family album, a reporting-out into the world. What could be more important than a document that shows six women who had the courage to try? Writing is not only about words—everyone has words—poetry is about courage, and truth, and honesty. And all that is found here.\n--Compiled by Grace Cavalieri\nCover Painting by Carole Falk
Book Design by Janice Olson