From "Screen Door" to "String Too Short to Keep"
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. (Coming soon here at InDepthNH.org), on the brink of unveiling "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.
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| Whispering Pines in the Chapel of the Woods |
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.
After my Alice died in 2018, in the same year as Donald, 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 their homestead at Eagle Pond Farm asked me to return to "The Farm" they had shared, to photograph the farm, 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.
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Nightgown on a Line Broadacres Farm |
Thinking about this later, after my conversation with Elaine, I recalled that day distinctly. I remember being struck by the fact that - despite the recent estate sale and the passage of nearly two decades since Janes's death, the house still yielded talismans 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 to her favorite trail onto 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 be Saved".
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, 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 keep" 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 |
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.
Listen to the Podcast
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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Winding Road to the Clouds
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