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GINA MYERS: a model year Saginaw Poet Links Vivid Imagery with Placement & Purpose
By Robert E. Martin The life of a poet is not an easy occupation to pursue within the fast-paced parameters of our Modern World; yet there is perhaps no other occupation more significant. Poetics consists of many things, but at the core it is an art of ‘vision’ – of seeing and documenting connections that we often miss on the surface, or in the pace of our busy lives, are too busy to derive meaningful insight from. And as noted poet Theodore Roethke noted in his beautiful poem Open House – the act of opening the core of one’s soul in a poem is by nature an act of engagement – an invitation for the world to enter the prism of an author’s eyes and take inventory.
Poets and critics such as David Shapiro write that her “poetry seems to have taken a polygraph test and has the truthfulness of an injured voice.” Maggie Nelson aptly notes that Gina’s work “contains more grace, precision, and wisdom than I’ve encountered in one place for some time.” And as Joseph Lease sums it up, ‘Gina Myers’ remarkable ear and her New York School sprezzetura can transform the consciousness in any room. She is one of the strongest of the new poets, and her brilliant book is a gift to us all.” Gina first got interested and started writing poetry under the guiding hand of respected English instructor Louise Harrison when she was a senior at Heritage High School. “Prior to that I thought poetry was pretty foreign and far away from everyday life,” reflects Gina, “because the poems that I read up to that point were older and used archaic English. But Mrs. Harrison turned me on to poets writing about contemporary life in contemporary language, and everything changed from that point on for me.” After starting at Delta College, Gina went to CMU to for an English degree and then moved on to the New School in New York City to earn a Masters Degree in poetry. This is where she read Homer and the classics and further broadened the depth of her pen. Later, she studied in England for a semester at Cambridge, where she took courses that exclusively focused on the work of Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. “If you’re going to be a writer, it’s important to know historically what is out there and have a sense of history that runs in tandem with your art, whatever art you pursue,” states Gina. It was while in college that Gina seriously started writing. “I knew what I wanted to do early on and started publishing poems at CMU. By the time I hit grad school in New York City, I’d been published in a lot of journals and got involved with writers living in New York City. I felt that I belonged and had a place there.” Gina references her favorite poets as Ted Barrigan and the punk-rock poet Eileen Myles, who gave her first readings at the notorious CBGB’s back in 1974. “I’m drawn to poets that use street language and write in the vernacular,” explains Gina, “but I’ve studied many others like Ezra Pound, where I learned about writing with historical feel and reference. I think you can do both. Poetry can reach different audiences and resonate with one person on one level and another person based upon deeper experience.” When it comes to crafting her words, does Gina write when inspiration strikes or is it a constant, methodical process of revision for her? “I get into revision and editing and every poem is different,” she states. “I often go for long periods of time that I don’t write at all, and I don’t force myself to write every day. I start when I’m ready and let ideas incubate, and then I’ll get them down and revise until I’m comfortable with where the poem is at. Some poems feel like I started them ten years ago and I’m still not satisfied with them.” As for the gestation with A Model Year, the majority of it was written during her time in Grad school in New York City and the year immediately following. With her work receiving quick positive reviews, how does Gina distinguish and view her niche with other contemporary poets? “One term often used by critics is that I’m part of the ‘New York School’, which since 1950 has broken down into a 4th generation kind of thing with many current writers,” she reflects. “It’s gotten strange and is so varied, but people do use that term in regards to my work, partly because my favorite poets are influenced by the earlier generation of writers from the New York School, and partly because I’m not really writing to fit into any category. I feel young as a writer and don’t need to satisfy one group’s requirements. Hopefully, I can grow and change and push myself and not think too strongly about poetics, theory, or the philosophy of poetry. I’m not into doing that yet because I have a sense of what I want to do, but not what I always want to do.” A Model Year is available locally at The Court Street Gallery, Barnes & Noble, and online at Amazon.com. Since its release in August, Gina has conducted readings in Chicago last September, as well as in Bay City. Plus she’s doing a reading in Atlanta in December at Emory University and on the East Coast in the spring, leading me to wonder if she feels this could ever evolve into a full time occupation. “I think every book of poetry for publishing companies nowadays is a loss, because they don’t have the numbers of people buying poetry book and reading it. Some feel that only poets read poetry, but I’d like to think that’s not true. I know people that aren’t poetry lovers that have bought my book, but it’s very difficult to solely get by in life being a poet. For the few people that do it’s a tough existence. Bernadette Mayer is an active poet and writing about struggling financially, which is just alarming to me – that someone as I see being successful in the world of poetry is having a time of it.” In terms of her favorite piece of work to date, Gina says she has a few, but is particularly drawn to the title piece of her work, a model year. “It’s a longer poem at 10 pages, with 10 sections. I tend to write short poems and this is the first time I pushed myself to write a longer one. It felt good how it turned out, with the last line of one section becoming the first line of the next, so I like reading it.” Gina notes that currently she’s in a creative working period, actively pursuing new poems and imagery. “Fall is a good time to write because I get inspired by the weather and the leaves changing. I’ve started to write longer pieces, with each piece a fragment and have thought about developing that into a book length project.” “Plus I recently wrote a piece that I performed in Chicago with visual art and worked with a photographer taking pictures of Saginaw – mostly houses that capture the decay and burn-out. I wrote a piece that went with it on a multi-media projector.” When asked what her biggest challenge is as a writer, Gina quickly states that it’s finding the time and energy to do it properly. “When I was younger and knew I wanted to write I said that it didn’t matter what I did for a job so long as I had the time and energy to write. But then I got a job in an office and discovered that wasn’t totally true. Now I’m teaching as an adjunct at Delta College and doing freelance work, so between prepping classes and grading papers, it’s easy to get distracted and put stuff aside.” Opinions vary upon what the ‘role’ of a poet fills in society, but Gina sums it up perfectly: “A poet’s role is that of any artist. As people we get caught in day-to-day rituals in our lives and gloss over a lot of what’s going on around us, not being fully aware of what is really happening. This can happen on a small or a big level, with deception from government, or politics – but an artist should be able to shake people for a second out of that moment of their daily ritual, and suddenly awake an awareness or consciousness of something. This can be a consciousness that exists for only a brief moment in time before they return to their ritual.” “Can poetry or art change the world? I don’t’ think it can – but I think it can change individual perceptions and ideas, which eventually does change the world.”
Brooklyn Wires cross & re-cross: One bruise covers another. Pigeons & sky washed- Out grey. The weight of a minute creases the back of the neck. The movement towards zero Tucked into the center. Fog on the window Expecting a new day, Expecting warm breath & the pressure of a fingertip drawing a circle. Or the movement away. Repeating to repeat. The arc of a hand – Gentle wave, slight turn. Leaves twist in the wind, Brush across sidewalk. Edges unfold, smudge out With the brush of a thumb.
Each Spring Looking for my name In every pawn shop I’m not fit To be a politician’s wife. Laughing along Lake Shore Drive Pointing to all the places We’ll never live Our plans for Mexico Forgotten at the end Of a novel 4 AM post-bar text message. The camera’s 3rd eye wrapped inside a flag Each spring Brings the promise Of a new baseball season Outside Wrigley boys Stand along N. Waveland Avenue With gloves on their hands Too young to have yet learned Baseball is only Good for heartache
Forecast The sea will flood & flood. Years spent wandering. Ten years of rain will be followed by ten years of drought. One year of decadence will be followed by one year of plague. Our bellies will be full & then they will be empty. The sun will rise & fall. Day will eclipse into darkness. We will learn the curve of our spines – the exact arc of our ribs. The land will turn to ash. Food: ash. Speech will be whispered. Words: ash in our mouths. We will no longer trust our neighbors or our families. We will no longer trust ourselves. Night after night spent in Solitude. All questions will go unasked, lost in a landscape of memory. We will be trapped somewhere between sleeping & waking. We each will experience our own exile, our own state of waiting.
Saginaw Dirty shopping carts In dirty parking lots. The future I was promised Enclosed here in this Brown paper bag. The hustle & flow Of a thousand empty Pockets scraping Against the grey Sky of unemployment. Who has forgotten Their sons, their daughters? Forget my dreams; How things were
Going to be different. Our single state recession Slumps into the new year. Yesterday’s paper Listing today’s foreclosures. My inability to be What you need me to be. My only companion. A 99-cent cup of coffee. The guarantee of something
Bottomless waiting for me.
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Saginaw has given
birth to many poets & artists; but few have clicked on the scale of
multi-faceted depth, maturity, and freshness as that of Gina Myers,
who’s newest work, A Model Year, was released by
Coconut Books this past August. As a frequent contributor to The
Review, Gina should be a familiar name to many of our faithful
readers; however the tapestry of her poetry reveals a delectable body of
nourishment and vitality, nuance and revelation that no other idiom of
expression can so deftly deliver.