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No one who has had the pleasure of reading the evocative and, at times, mysterious poetry of Elaine Sexton has walked away without being inspired and seeing new worlds in even-familiar places and things. Elaine joined me to talk about her soon-to-be-released fifth book of poetry, "Site Specific". Published by Grid Books:
She honors us with a reading of some selected works as well as a revealing look into her inner world, including her means of titling her books and works.
As a child, Elaine was a student of the unique Lady Isle School (aka Belle Isle) island off of Little Harbor Rd., in Portsmouth, N.H. The school was a private Catholic elementary school run by the Sisters of Providence.
A graduate of UNH, where she published her first "official" student art magazine "Serendipity" (that also featured some photos by a budding young photographer named Wayne King). I say "first official" because Elaine had spent years corresponding with her friends in the manner of a news journal, laid out to be sure that form and function coincided.
Her love of the written word was inspired by her mother, and today, she carries on the tradition opening our eyes to the world in new and exciting ways. Even the seemingly mundane reveals itself as magic in her hands.
Listen to Podcast here
Watch on YouTube here
Show Notes
Books by Elaine Sexton
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Elaine+Sexton&crid=3874JMHZQ8LEC&sprefix=elaine+sexton%2Caps%2C125&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
Rethinking Regret
Let’s thank our mistakes, let’s bless them
for their humanity, their terribly weak chins.
We should offer them our gratitude and admiration
for giving us our clefts and scarring us with
embarrassment, the hot flash of confession.
Thank you, transgressions! for making us so right
in our imperfections. Less flawed, we might have
turned away, feeling too fit, our desires looking
for better directions. Without them, we might have
passed the place where one of us stood, watching
someone else walk away, and followed them,
while our perfect mistake walked straight towards us,
walked right into our cluttered, ordered lives
that could have been closed but were not,
that could have been asleep, but instead
stayed up, all night, forgetting the pill,
the good book, the necessary eight hours,
and lay there—in the middle of the bed—
keeping the heart awake—open and stunned,
stunning. How unhappy perfection must be
over there on the shelf without a crack, without
this critical break—this falling—this sudden, thrilling draft.
~ elaine sexton
From "Screen Door" to "String Too Short to Keep"
A poetic journey across time and space in New Hampshire with Poet Elaine Sexton
From "Screen Door" to "String Too Short to Save"
A poetic journey across time and space in New Hampshire with Poet Elaine Sexton
"Let's thank our mistakes".
These are the first words of a beautiful new poem, "Rethinking Regret," penned by Poet Elaine Sexton, and included in her upcoming book titled "Site Specific."
Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing my old college chum, Elaine, now a noted Poet living in New York, on the brink of unveiling her 5th book of Poetry, "Site Specific"
In the wake of our conversation, over the past few days, Elaine and I have been working through an exercise of 'editing on the run'. From this, I have gleaned new insights into the process of improving our podcast. Including creating some guardrails that allow the interviewee to provide input before final publication, suggesting ways to make a point more clearly, eliminating redundancy, choosing a more apt adjective or adverb; and, of course, eliminating mistakes of the "five books, not four" variety.
As it happens, this process has not only led to clearer thinking on my part about podcasting in a way that is both true to its possibilities but also to the role of journalists in this wild west of social media.
The greater journey, however, has not been the philosophical one, but that of time travelers in a sea of words, allegory, metaphor, and meter.
As Elaine explored the genesis of her title during the podcast interview and treated me to another poem titled "Screen Door", our conversation wandered back 25 years to a memory of mine involving two other great NH Poets, Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon.
I became friends with Donald and Jane when, in my role as their Senator, they asked for my help in protecting an important parcel of land on the side of Mt. Kearsarge and I eagerly agreed. I relayed this story to Elaine in our conversation and noted that there were few poets that I knew of who so closely hued to "site-specific" as Hall and Kenyon.
I first met Don and Jane in 1991. Jane had not been diagnosed with the Leukemia that would take her from us. She was diagnosed in 1994 and died in the following year. Donald lived another 23 years.
Donald died in 2018, the same year that I lost my Alice. In the months and years that followed, I often found myself turning to their poetry for solace in my own time of grief. It was only then that I came to be fully aware of how powerful was the love they shared.
Some years later, another friend who was working with a group hoping to preserve Donald and Jane's homestead at Eagle Pond Farm asked me to return to "The Farm" to photograph it in an effort to preserve it in their honor. When I went back there, though I had been warned that an estate sale had quite nearly wiped out their belongings, I had hoped, nonetheless, to find at least a few images evocative of them and I did.
Thinking about this later, after my conversation with Elaine, I recalled that day distinctly. I remembered being struck by the fact that - despite the recent estate sale and the passage of nearly two decades since Jane's death, the house still yielded talismans, sometimes moving and sometimes silly, from their life together: a silly ceramic white goose that appeared to peer down onto their wood cookstove from its cooling shelf; Jane's massive dictionary occupying a good deal of the real estate on her desktop; and, her burgundy handbag and scarf, hung in the hallway leading out onto her favorite trail up Mount Kearsarge where she loved to ramble with her beloved Irish setter Finn.
I was especially hoping to find the box documented in one Donald Hall poem, bearing a handwritten label that would also become the title of the book in which it was published: "String too Short to Save".
In the midst of these swirling memories, the title of Elaine's new book, "Site Specific", seemed almost an unintended homage to the spirits of Hall and Kenyon, perhaps even, to another NH Poet, Robert Frost, though it came straight from the heart of my old college friend.
Today, through time and space, a spiritual connection gathered between Elaine Sexton and these other icons of parsimoniously phrased New Hampshire spirit.
Poetry, among its many gifts, is an art that - at its best - carves out the deepest meaning from a purposefully meager volume of words that summon a wealth of imaginings, memories, hopes, and desires.
Alas, though the box intended for "string too short to save" was nowhere to be found. It is my fervent hope that it was not destroyed in the wake of Donald's passing and one day will delight the attendees and viewers of "Antiques Roadshow".
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Climbing Through Grief
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If you'd like to see some of the images captured at Eagle Pond Farm, Follow the link below. We'll see to it that half the proceeds from any sale benefit the fund to preserve the legacy of all these great New Hampshire poets. You can also make a direct donation to the preservation of Eagle Pond Farm at https://ateaglepond.org/donate.
Images from Eagle Pond Farm
Listen to the New Hampshire Secrets, Legends & Lore Podcast with Elaine Sexton.
Listen to Podcast here
Watch on YouTube here
About Wayne D. King: Author, podcaster, artist, activist, social entrepreneur and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor. His art (WayneDKing.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published five books of his images, most recently, "New Hampshire - a Love Story”. His novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high-voltage adventure to stop a private powerline as well as the photographic books are available at most local bookstores or on Amazon. He lives on the “Narrows” in Bath, NH at the confluence of the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc Rivers and proudly flies the American, Iroquois and Abenaki Flags. His publishing website is: Anamaki.com.
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Columbine Color Riot
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Winter Blues
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Window Colors
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| Calder in Blue |
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Whispering Pines in the Chapel of the Woods
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A Glow in the Dells
Signed Originals Edition of 10 >
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Alexandra in the High Sierras
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Alexandra's Ancient Oak
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Mixed Maples in Langdon Woods
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The Wild Apple
 | Wisdom Begins in Wonder
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 | Winters Thrust
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 | Winter Shadows
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 | Winter in the Skatepark 1
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 | Winsor Garden Sunflowers
| Columbine Color Riot
 | Clouds Paint the Presidentials
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 | Portrait Delta State Boys, Calibar Nigeria
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 | Pony Parade, Wales
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 | A Child's Dream Among Lupine
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