Decades before I ever wrote a publishable novel or short story, I was writing poems that did the same thing in fewer words. What is “the thing,” you ask?
Some poems tell a story.
rich and dark and gleaming
they seem to surround me
each tier’s apex a velvet throat
hidden in the depths, the rows of jaws
yawn wide as if to snap
on this twelve-year old girl
from “Orchestra Class,” first published in Yellow Mama; in my new collection, The Old Lady Shows Her Mettle
Some poems make people think.
of a woman whose name no one remembers
though all the oldest still alive and sane
were there last time I asked
from “I Am the Daughter,” the title poem in
my first collection, I Am the Daughter
Some poems make people laugh.
my mother rejects the unconscious...
her house is clean...
when she visits the optometrist
she peers fiercely at the eye chart
and tries to put her glasses on
she is 20-20 at life
but wants an A in both eyes too.
from “My Mother Rejects the Unconscious,” first published in Sojourner;
in my first collection, I Am the Daughter
when I sleep in my parents’ house
they make up the bed I traded in my crib for
the pine tree outside my window
still catches stars in its branches
the pine tree is still growing
it frightens me
having so much to lose
from “On Borrowed Time,” in I Am the Daughter
then there was the day I took them to the zoo
riding the subway up to the Bronx...
we looked as normal as anyone in the car...
three of the paranoid schizophrenics took a ride
on the aerial tram, but I was too scared
of heights to go along
they snapped my picture smiling
from “Outing,” first published in Home Planet News; in my second collection, Gifts and Secrets
Some poems hold up a mirror to our conscious or unconscious selves.
Whether I’m writing a poem, a short story, or a novel, the creative process is the same. Some call it it inspiration or being "in the zone." The process of writing a new short story may begin with what I call “my characters talking in my head.” A novel requires such a long period of sustained effort that it demands a high ratio of slogging to inspiration. But those moments are equally familiar to my inner poet. I wrote about one such moment long before I realized that other writers had the same experience.
I keep getting up to write poems
a dozen times between 3 and 6 AM
I curl back around you in the dark
and pull the blankets up
but then a line tugs at my mind
and I go stumbling through the hall
groping for light and pen
each time I lie back down
the images pop up like frogs
clamoring to be made princes
and you grumble and roll over
as I shuffle into my slippers once again
and go kiss the page
from “Night Poem,” in Gifts and Secrets
For me, the main difference between the two crafts is that, like other fiction writers, I say, “I tell lies for a living,” and I’m only half kidding—well, completely kidding about the “living” part. As a poet, I say, “All of my stories are true.” In my novels and short stories, my goal is to create fictional characters who leap off the page, made-up characters so real that the reader not only believes, but falls in love with them. In my poetry, the ring of authenticity comes from lived experience.
Some poems have something to say.
The poet’s craft is speaking my truth and turning it into art as opposed to hitting you over the head with it. My new book, The Old Lady Shows Her Mettle, took more than two years to write. When I started writing poetry again for the first time in twenty years, I was much too angry at the state of the world to create art rather than polemic. It took everything I’d learned about patience as a novelist and about revision as a short story writer to write good poems that said what I wanted to say. Over that period, as the world got even more chaotic and the future more uncertain, I learned that I also had something to say about hope, connection, love, and peace of mind.
no anxiety, no regret, a vast serenity
in the greater vastness of the sea
singing while we moan about how to fix it all
swimming parallel to our troubled world
from “Afternoon On the Beach,” first published in
Yellow Mama; in The Old Lady Shows Her Mettle
All poems © Elizabeth Zelvin
The Old Lady Shows Her Mettle is available as paperback or e-book.
Liz's other poetry collections, short fiction collections,
and novels are all available as e-books.
Poetry by Elizabeth Zelvin
Bruce Kohler Mysteries
Mendoza Family Saga
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