Books, Nature, People

March Is Here, but So Is Poet Claire Hersom

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Tra-la, tra la! March is officially here. Although we Mainers put a brave face on it and even go out for ice cream, we already feel the weight of this too-long month, rightly known as Maine’s fifth season—mud season. So far, there hasn’t been too much mud, but we know it is coming. Yes, we do.

Right now, March, in typical fashion, is whipping us back and forth. One day the weather will be mild with temperatures in the fifties, and the next day there will be a blizzard with over a foot of snow— the forecast for this Wednesday. Mainers take it in stride, but we do complain. A lot. In fact, complaining about March weather is one of our favorite pastimes.

Here is a shot of our backyard as it emerges from winter. Oh, the glory, and it’s just going to get worse. Clif will have to put planks on the walkway so that that he won’t sink into the mud as he hauls wood.

But enough of March! Instead, let us turn our attention to a very fine poet, Claire Hersom. I posted this picture of her a few days ago, but it is so cute—note the sly look on her face—that I thought I’d post it again.

I met Claire about fifteen years ago, when Clif and I published a literary magazine called Wolf Moon Journal. Via the Internet, Claire submitted some of her poems, and I was immediately taken with her use of language and her ability to get to the heart of things.  As if good poetry weren’t enough, I also learned that Claire lived less than a mile from me, but somehow, even in our small town, I had never met her. So funny!

Over the years, we featured many of her poems in Wolf Moon, and we became friends. As it so happened, she introduced her nephew, Mike Mulkeen, to our daughter, Shannon, and the two hit it off immediately. This August, they will have been married eight years.

Claire has published many books of poetry, and her most recent one, published in 2017 by Moon Pie Press, is Dreamscape.

What a lovely cover! As far as I’m concerned, you can never go wrong with blue, and it features snappy art work by her talented granddaughter, Eleanor Rose Folsom.

Claire has generously allowed me to use one of her poems in this post, and I chose “Dreamscape,” also the book’s title. Many, Many thanks, Claire!

Dreamscape 

It’s always in the early, dark morning
when a chill lingers from the night air
that we balance and
suspend in so many forms
at the brink of the precipice –
that first glimmer of day, of hope,
the new beginning hardly noticed
were it not for the argument of birds,
the bending, dew-filled pine,
the hollow stamp of deer outlined
in the grass under our windows.
Settled in last night beside you in dream,
they too waited, their warm fawn bodies
of stick-legs and too-big ears listening
for sounds; the same sounds as you,
eyes never too far from a flutter,
never completely at rest.

 

35 thoughts on “March Is Here, but So Is Poet Claire Hersom”

  4. Lovely poem – thanks for sharing it, Laurie. Interesting history you share with Clare!
    Love this line: “In fact, complaining about March weather is one of our favorite pastimes.” Love the honesty! 😉

    1. Yes, very interesting history. Might as well be honest about how we feel about March. 😉

  6. It’s so cool how poetry brought you this awesome friend. Thanks for sharing this poem it was just like you built it up – she does get to the heart of things. I’d love to hear more about the literary journal was that something you guys made?

    1. Yes, my husband and I published the journal, a very small home-grown affair. It was even printed locally, with mixed results when it came to quality. We published the journal for nine years, but then the Great Recession hit, and it was no longer feasible for us to do this. But we had a nine-year run, and it was a grand adventure.

    1. Yes, yes! And so true for blogging friends as well. While I will probably never meet most of my blogging friends, I have nevertheless been so enriched by them.

  8. Lovely poem by Claire, and it reminds me to go back to poetry reading which is such a joy but slips by the wayside in the daily routines of life… Hope you can ignore the coming March weather and read poetry instead!

    1. Another big storm blowing up the East Coast, and this time Maine is going to get hit. Right now, anyway, the forecast is for about a foot of snow with winds that aren’t supposed to be damaging. We shall see. Anyway, good time for reading poetry. 😉

  10. I never think I understand or like poetry but then a fellow blogger shares a poem and I love it! Still not sure I understand it, though . . . 😉

    1. I’m not exactly sure, but to me it’s a reflection of a past love and the inkling that things aren’t going to end well. But that’s just my take.

      1. Fascinating! That’s not at all what I took from it! But I think maybe that’s part of the appeal of poetry–each reader must bring themselves to it and help create meaning . . .

      2. So true! Same with reading a book, as I discover each month in book group.

  12. I love the poem – it has such a dreamlike feel to it. Thank-you so much for sharing it, Laurie.
    I hope the storm hasn’t been too bad.

    1. She is such a good poet. The storm has started late, and this gave us plenty of time to prepare. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

  13. Thanks for sharing the wonderful poem and stories about your friendship.🙂 I’ve been known to complain about the mud and lately, quite often, about this March weather!😁

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