ForeWord Review of 'Writing Poetry to Save Your Life'

 Jennifer Fandel reviewed Writing Poetry To Save Your Life: How To Find The Courage To Tell Your Stories by Maria Mazziotti Gillan (MiroLand, Softcover) for ForeWord Reviews for their Summer 2013 issue.

Poet gives straightforward, caring advice on how beginners can develop courage against fears and doubts to find the stories they have to tell.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan’s poetry writing guide is based on one fundamental belief: We all have stories to tell. There are no magic formulas to be had here, rather, Gillan makes readers feel like they’re sitting across from her at the kitchen table while she dishes out ample servings of encouragement. Her advice is straightforward and caring, and for those who have considered writing poetry, her book reinforces the notion that it’s never too late.
Gillan, the poet and director of the creative writing program at Binghamton University-SUNY, provides guidance that stems from her own experience as a working class, Italian-American wife and mother from Paterson, New Jersey. Believing at first that she couldn’t write poetry because she wasn’t poetic” enough, she began turning to her own experiences and found a wealth of things that she felt moved to write about—and that she discovered also moved others.

Structured in very short chapters (two to four pages each), the book focuses on four main areas: finding the stories you have to tell, improving your writing, making your writing come alive, and developing courage against fears and doubts. Each chapter contains simple, accessible exercises, as well as an example poem to help make each point clear. Additionally, she mentions other example poems (the majority of poems are the author’s), which are referenced in the book’s bibliography.


The most extensive and, perhaps, most valuable part of her book comes in the final chapter, which is more than one hundred pages long and offers writing prompts, divided into blocks of five. The prompts range from a line that immerses readers in a scene (“Climbing barbed wire fences”) to
ideas that trigger memories (“Write about Sunday dinner at Grandmother’s”). Schedule twenty minutes a day to write is the goal she lays out to her readers. The prompts are meant to make the goal easy—you open the book, pick a prompt from the five prompts for that day, and get writing! And because there are five prompts for every day, you can easily repeat the process.

Aimed at beginning writers, Writing Poetry to Save Your Life is a perfect writing guide for those who have considered writing and wondered just how to get started.

Poem: Jacobs Department Store

Jacobs Department Store


When I was growing up, we’d go to Jacobs department
store in Paterson, New Jersey, my mother, brother,
sister and I made our way to the shoe department
to get our shoes. They carried brown oxfords, Buster
Brown, the only name brand item my mother ever
bought for us. No ballerina shoes for us. Only those
chunky oxfords, trying to insure our feet would be as
safe as she tried to keep us. In the shoe department,


they had a machine that X-rayed your feet so they
could fit you with the perfect size shoes. I loved that
machine, sliding my feet into it so I could see the bones
in my feet, the shape of them like silver shadows. How
easy it was to see the interior of the foot, the bones
of the toes, but today nothing is easy. I’d like to slide my
life into that foot measuring machine, figure out why on
a day so bright with autumn, my worry is darker than


all beauty and nothing is easy. Not the email I get
from my son in Texas saying, “I don’t want to talk
about it, but Texas stinks,” and I know my son, a man
of few words, has sent out a distress call louder
than a sonic boom, and if I ask him, he won’t tell me
what’s wrong, though he used to tell me everything
when he was a boy and I sat on the side
of his bed and held his hand until he fell asleep
and nothing is easy, not my worry about my husband


whom I left behind yesterday even though
his head is bent sideways on his neck
so it looks as though he’s going to hit doorways
and walls and often does, not my guilt that when
I went to bed the other night I heard him cursing
and shouting, and I heard the aide who now lives
with us because he can’t be left alone, go downstairs,
and I fell asleep anyway, and my guilt when the aide


tells me the next morning that he was trying to get
to the bathroom and he fell and wet his pants
and she had to calm him down and change his clothes
and wash him, the way I did so many times
before she moved in and I am ashamed
that I have hired someone else to do
what I can’t manage any more. I don’t need
that foot machine to see how devastated and broken
the lines of my life have become, and no shoes, no shoes
to fix what is wrong.

by Maria Mazziotti Gillan
from The Place I Call Home (NYQ Books)

Update: Maria Mazziotti Gillan

(back row, from left), poets Stephanie Cawley, Charles Johnson
and Language Arts teacher Bob Evans, poet Kevin Carey
and featured poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan.
Photo/Mark Hillringhouse

Dear friends and fans of Maria Gillan,

Mark Hillringhouse snapped this picture on Friday morning, May 10, minutes before Maria's first poetry workshop at a Cumberland County high school.

As Maria was walking down the hall with her student escort on route to the classroom, she passed out and hit the floor hard.

Because of the fall, Maria broke her shoulder and bruised her face (it is still the color of an eggplant) and spent four days in a Cumberland County hospital before heading north to a rehab facility.

She is doing hours of physical therapy each day, so she can get strong and get back to doing what she loves to do most--write and read poetry.

Thank you for the outpouring of love and get well wishes for Maria, which is sure to heal her in short order. Please leave any other messages for Maria here and keep her in your prayers.

Peace & Poetry,

Susan Balik

Upcoming Events

Saturday, May 11

Louis Jenkins

M. L. Liebler

The Distinguished Poets Series

of the Poetry Center at

Passaic County Community College

(Poetry writing workshop

with Louis Jenkins or BJ Ward at

10 AM. Fee $15.

Pre-registration required.)

Hamilton Club Building

32 Church St. (corner of Ellison St.)

Paterson

1 PM                      Free

Open Reading

Contact: Maria Mazziotti Gillan

973-684-6555

http://www.pccc.edu/poetry

Sunday, May 19
POETRY FESTIVAL: A CELEBRATION
OF LITERARY JOURNALS
12 journals and their editors:
Adanna
Edison Literary Review
Exit 13
Journal of New Jersey Poets
Lips
Painted Bride Quarterly
Paterson Literary Review
Raintown Review
Schuylkill Valley Journal
Stillwater Review
Tiferet
US 1 Worksheets
Journals will be available along with
subscription and submission information.
Editors will answer questions
about publishing.
24 poets will read
throughout the afternoon.
Robert Carnevale
Mike Cohen
Lorraine Doran
Juditha Dowd
Sandra Duguid
Martin Farawell
Andrew "Ink" Feindt
Jim Gwyn
Miriam Haier
Eric Heller
Ernest Hilbert
Linda Hillringhouse
Janet Kirchheimer
David Kozinski
Francesca MaximE
Kathy Nelson
Kathe Palka
Wanda Praisner
Ed Romond
Linda Stern
Chuck Tripi
Emily Vogel
Joe Weil
Edytta Wojnar
Books by the poets will be available
for sale and signing.
West Caldwell Public Library
30 Clinton Ave., West Caldwell
1-5 PM            Free
Contact library: 973-226-5441
Or dslockward@gmail.com
For full schedule and directions:

http://www.dianelockward.com/fest.html

Tuesday, May 21 

MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN

LESLIE HEYWOOD

Carriage House Poetry Series 

Kuran Arts Center 

Watson Rd. (GPS Use 75 N. Martine Ave.)

Fanwood 

8PM                Free 

Contact: Adele Kenny

908-889-7223 

carriagehousepoetryseries.blogspot.com

Sunday, June 2

MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN +

“All That Lies Between Us”

A Documentary film

on the Life and Work of

Maria Mazziotti Gillan

Sponsored by Montclair UNICO

Montclair Salvation Army Building

13 Trinity Place, Montclair

3 PM               $15

                        $10 Seniors/students

Contact: Don DiGerinimo

973-809-9586 or

Steve Ruccio

973-610-6161

Writing Poetry to Save Your Life: How to Find the Courage to Tell Your Stories

MiroLand, Guernica's new imprint, is proud to offer Maria Mazziotti Gillan's newest book, Writing Poetry To Save Your Life: How To Find The Courage To Tell Your Stories, as its first publication.

It is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Small Press Distributors, and University of Toronto Press Distribution.



Described as "The only book you'll ever need to bring out your inner poet."  It combines Maria’s personal story as a writer with her suggestions for writers at all stages of development. The voice in this book is that of a friend who sits with you in a warm kitchen sipping espresso or a cup of herbal tea, while offering support and encouragement. It is designed to help you find the stories you have to tell and the words to tell them. It is based on the belief that when you find the courage to explore your memories, you will find the source for evocative writing. It can be used in classrooms, by writer’s groups, or by an individual while writing at home or in a coffee shop. It will jumpstart your creativity, giving you permission to use the power of words to save your life.

All That Lies Between Us Documentary Showings in Massachusetts and New Jersey

Maria Mazziotti Gillan used poetry as a way out of an urban childhood that was happy but lower class to success in the writing world.

Filmmakers Kevin Carey and Mark Hillringhouse's documentary on Maria, "All That Lies Between Us" chronicles the deep connections between her life and her writing. It travels from the streets of her hometown Paterson, New Jersey to readings, her home and her work as Director of Creative Writing Program and Professor of Poetry at Binghamton University (SUNY).

“We’re raised to not be honest with anyone outside the home,” she said. “I spent a good portion of my life biting my tongue. The more I taught poetry was the braver I got,” says Gillan.

The film will has two screenings this month.

On Saturday, May 4, it will be shown at the 5th Massachusetts Poetry Festival in Salem where Maria will be reading.(Peabody Essex Museum Morse Auditorium 12:30 PM ― 1:45 PM)

On Friday, May 10, it will be shown at the Cumberland Regional High School Festival in New Jersey. (7PM, free with donations accepted, at Cumberland Regional H.S., 90 Silver Lake Rd., Bridgeton)

The documentary was written, produced and directed by Kevin Carey and Mark Hillringhouse.

To order a DVD of the film, send check or money order for $17.00 ($15.00 plus $2.00 for postage and handling) payable to Kevin Carey at 605 Cabot St., Beverly, MA 01915.

Maria Gillan: Poetry Month Interview

For the final week of National Poetry Month, the Passaic County Community College Writing Center blog interviewed Maria Mazziotti Gillan.


 Here's a cross-posting:




PCCC: How did you know or when did you know you were a poet?

Maria Mazziotti Gillan (MMG): I knew I wanted to be a poet when I was very young. I started writing when I was 8 years old, and once I saw my poems published when I was 13 I knew that I would never stop being a poet. In a way you don’t chose [poetry], it chooses you. It grabs you by the back of the neck and says this is it.

PCCC: What topics do you most like to explore in your poetry? What influences you?


MMG: I explore ethnicity, family relationships, place, grief, loss, the environment. My poetry is increasingly concerned with grief over what we’ve done to the earth, but always my poems are narrative and even when I am writing about world issues, I always connect those issues to the personal. I have a new book coming out at the end of April, 2013, Writing Poetry To Save Your Life: How To Find The Courage To Tell Your Stories (Toronto, Canada: Miroland/Guernica, 2013), and it’s part memoir and part a book intended to encourage people to write so it explains in detail how I came to writing, and how to help yourself to find what you need to write about.

PCCC: What other types of writing, genre, and art forms are you interested in?

MMG: I am interested in visual art as well as poetry, and I began to paint again about ten years ago. I was encouraged to do that by Beat poet Diane di Prima when we were on a reading tour in California, and I’ll always be grateful to her for that.

PCCC: What advice can you give to beginning poets and poets dealing with rejection?

MMG: My advice to beginning poets is to read and read and read some more, and also to keep writing even when that writing is not getting published. That’s really why I wrote the book on writing because I thought that people needed to be encouraged to keep on going even when they felt that no one was paying attention to them.

PCCC: What’s next?

MMG: I’ll be touring to publicize the book on writing and later this year I have two new poetry books coming out. One is called The Silence in the Empty House (NYQ books, Fall, 2013) and Ancestor’s Song (Bordighera Press, November 2013). Other than that, I’m still writing and reading in lots of places across the country, and I don’t plan to stop anytime soon.