Special Recognition article for October 29th, 2011

Daily Literature Deviations is proud to feature this special recognition article!
You can show your support by  ing this News Article. We hope this gives you some insight into
the person behind the art.
Please comment and   the features and congratulate the artist!


Artists will be featured in a special news article every Saturday. Major points to SilverInkblot
for doing the hard work and research that goes into these articles!  

Today's featured deviant is:
Jade-Pandora!

Questions

  

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing.

Actually, from all I know and have learned in the ten years I have been a poet, I would like what. I could simply free associate, a spill if you will, which is one way to mix up the answers with something totally different, but I do not know exactly to clue you in on some of the process I use in writing. There are a lot of opportunities for beginning poets to practice their new craft with prompts from many of the lit groups around here. For others who are veteran poets, a prompt now and then might keep one in form if the ideas for poems seem to have dried up. Me, I came to the conclusion a while back that all poems are created from prompts, and are written as spills, and are scrubbed when the author polishes each piece prior to posting and publishing them. I have on many occasion created poems from self imposed prompts which are wonderful ways to come up with subjects I can easily connect with. One that comes to mind is my poem, The Esperanto of Trees. I simply gave myself the wordtrees, and within an hour or so, I had the poem, polished and ready to post.

My preference has always been as a poet, even though, yes, I have tried to write prose (short stories), but I have an impatient muse. Remember to always listen for when your muse stirs, and you won't ever mistake leisure breaks that it takes as writer's block. I've discovered from my own experience that there is no such thing as a block. Once I realized this, I never had an anxious moment again, and have had long periods of nonstop inspirations. As I was saying, I prefer to write poetry because the bursts I encounter when a piece begins to take shape are intense and brief. I do not dare ignore them because the opportunity either withers away or morphs into something that I had no intention to write. Strike as soon as you can when you hear the muse whisper, even if it is one word. That one word just might be the prompt that sets the next piece you write in motion. My way of thinking and writing is not for writing prose. I admire those who can do it well, but my inspirations are here for a moment and then they are gone.

2.  How do you feel about dA as a literature community?

It was four years before I discovered the lit community. Before that, I didn't know much about participating in groups, clubs, or competitions. Then, one day I stumbled into a dA lit chat room and met someone who set me on the path, and received my first Daily Deviation for my poem, Mer. Several months later, I came upon the October 2007 HaikuWrimo which was already in progress through the Autumn month of October, and was welcomed as a novice participant even though I wrote Japanese short form strictly from the gut, which means I had never had any formal training for writing poetry, let alone Japanese short form. From there, I started to quickly learn how to write Haiku, Tanka, Senryu, Haibun, and much more. I even hosted a workshop the following year. In 2008 I received my first acceptance to have some of my short form published, and soon after, some of my long form. I've been a member since October 2003 – eight years – it is hard to believe. Because I pitched my tent here at dA and stuck it out through some rough times, I learned things I would have never learned, saw my writing turn into some kind of style, and evolve as it continues to do to this day. I was voted for a senior tick, was featured and published time and time, and became an award winning poet. Not to mention how honored I am when other poets approach and announce that they have learned from me, and been inspired! That's the most amazing part of my experience as a deviant. That is just the tip of the iceberg of what I have been able to accomplish while being here at deviantArt, and its literature community.

3. Eight years huh? You've definitely seen the ups and downs around dA. How has the literary community changed during that time? Has the community itself been an influence on your work?

My answers to this multi question will meander in an attempt to enlighten you and the readers with what you would like to know. Since my initial arrival as a new deviant in 2003 until I found the lit community four years later, my existence was not even close to what it had become mere months after I stumbled, head over heels, into that lofty arena. I immediately started to learn from several who coached me in short form, and in turn, they learned from me as my word craft abilities grew by leaps and bounds. I also learned a great deal by the examples others set from their own postings of short and long form poetry. From there, I soaked in and internalized everything that helped me to understand how better to express myself. I quickly realized that the direction in which I evolved was always there; I just needed someone to turn on the light and tell me the names of things. Becoming involved in the literature community showed me how helpful it was to read other poets, both here, and especially the accomplished poets that have left their published gifts for those of us following after. I know it is an issue that some of you would debate, so I speak for myself when I suggest that reading the works of others definitely shows a writer more depths to explore. Not to copy others, but to see how they did it before you came along to try your hand at it. My appetite was whetted, and became insatiable when I was given and read my first book of poetry, a collection by Sonia Sanchez, almost four years ago. The reason for that book was because I had been told that my own Tanka form had a similar spirit as that of Ms Sanchez. High praise indeed for me who had never heard of the form until a few months before! I studied and wrote Japanese short form exclusively for about two months. Once I started to include long form again, I recognized that my intense studies/writing had completely and forever affected my writing no matter what form! I was thrilled! Gone was any need to lean on the heavy baggage of punctuation usage, of redundant use of words. The works of long verse, in particular poems such as "River Dream", "Scourge", and "Elysium", reflected the change in their clean and slender lines. The brevity gave my expressions an ease of intensity if you will, with less becoming far more. I go on about all of this because I owe my evolution in large part to the discoveries made possible right here in the deviantArt literature community, and those who took me in despite my unorthodox and outside the box sensuality. Who also helped me to realize that I had found a style, and a recognized poet's voice. So yes indeed, through all of its own growing pains over the years, the literature community has been of immeasurable influence to my abilities, and moreover, to my life.

4. Are there any authors you feel have been an influence on your work?

As I mentioned earlier, I started with owning one book of poetry. Within two to three years, I estimate I now have almost two hundred. The selections run the gamut from the most revered, to new and modern poets with first volumes sitting on store shelves waiting to be discovered. They and everyone in between matters to me. Those who come to mind right off: Pablo Neruda, Garcia Lorca, Charles Simic, David Wevill, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Rumi, Rilke, Sappho and Greek lyric poetry in general, Kahlil Gibran, Gary Snyder, Billy Collins, and many more of course. It is wonderful to know them all through their poetry. I have taken the time to read a number of biographies of some of those I have mentioned, and some that I have not. It brings an additional depth to my understanding when I delve into their words of expression. Also, it gives me a way to connect to their lives, and their deaths. I wrote an homage to Lorca entitled craneo de un caballo which consequently was featured with a Daily Deviation, an honor felt deeply because of the emotion invested in that piece, and how this gifted young poet met his end in the most outrageous way. Most definitely there are those I have been profoundly touched by.

5. You have a section in your gallery for "Visual and Audio Poetry." Could you tell us a bit about that? How does adding those layers effect the words?

Anytime a new kind of expression is added, it is like a new color to a pallet, or a new instrument to an orchestra. It goes from being words acted out silently in your mind, to a song you hear, and a lens that lets in the world of the other senses. My pieces, Universe, Temple of Isis, and Orca, all started as printed words alone; standing on their own like that and respectfully so, until one by one, more layers of life were breathed into them with audible recitation, flash video, music and other effects! They were all fraught with work and loss of sleep, but I would not have had it any other way. Besides, I could never have done it alone: turned any of the audio or the visual poems into the wonderful results everyone can enjoy anytime! I can not overlook mentioning with pride the collaborations with argitoth for the flash videos with audio, music and effects on Universe – Flash Video, and Temple of Isis. And with RetroZombie for the flash with audio and effects on Orca – Flash Video, who also collaborated in perfectly interpreting the visions of all of my visual poetry and make them look as wonderful as they do. Dazzling artistic results of every kind comes from talented deviants, made even richer with getting together to raise their skills to new heights in the process of collaborations.

Poetry

HitchhikeShe walks by the edge of a road that winds
through low hills on either side, carpeted
with yellow wild flowers, thinning as they
begin to spoil, die from their spring riot.
The heat of day is tempered aloft by
cotton ball clouds, a still life vista of
Impressionism, giving respite to
the hiker, turning, to face the sound
that approaches now in the breathless air,
of an old junkyard pickup skidding the
gravel, and creaks as it idles, waiting.
In a rocking motion, the door hinge pops,
swinging wide; a rusting invitation.
A black Labrador drops low to the floor,
its wide yellow glare, its tail wagging slow.
The shadowy figure of the driver
sharply barks a command, "Cutter, GIT!".
Alert, without hesitation, the dog
jumps behind the seat without a sound.
The young woman squints behind her Ray-bans,
wary to chance it on the road on foot.
She thinks, "I'm a white girl, and he owns a dog.
He will protect me when it becomes dark."
Assured by her thoughts, she pulls herself in.
The engine roars,
"Hitchhike" by Jade-Pandora


Black SwanCrickets stridulate as their summer dies,  
and so too their generation, while a black swan  
glides through reeds of a gentle evening  
to the chorus of a million love songs, identical  
as she is different in every way, to reflect and  
disturb the still water sheen,  
tiny ripples to crashing crescendo, standing out  
alone as does her lover who awaits the insane one  
in her blue-black splendor,  
and sunrise comes when his lips move to beckon  
her near, her quick eyes spying his prickly beard  
as his black swan comes to preen.  
"black swan" by Jade-Pandora


black plums1
late afternoon,
whispers moving the air
between us
2
the spiral dance
of a spider's dinner
3
cloudburst-
his clothes and mine
drip-dry in the tub
4
curbside run-off
graceful silouette
the flight of a crane
5
nude
awaiting the brush
clay pots
6
bathroom window
moonlight
voyeur
7
a date at the zoo...
he curls his lip up at me
8
stains from a daydream
black plums
9
I trod barefoot
on the path
to his sandals
10
ice age-
my feet against his
"black plums" by Jade-Pandora



"moon haiku" by Jade-Pandora




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