Poetic reflections - week 3

"The sea, washing the equator and the poles,
offers its perilous aid, and the power and empire that follow it...
''Beware of me,'' it says, '' but if you can hold me,
I am the key to all the lands.''

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Welcome to week 3 and Poetic Reflections. I am Blaga and today the talented Isabel Paulo from "Tales from the sea" is our guest. Welcome Isabel! Thank you for your time, sharing thoughts with Gooseberry Garden!

Strange sea
by Isabel Paulo

Sometimes

I want to be
A calm strange sea
With no past or memory

Sometimes
I want to feel
The gush of sunken waves
With no expression or ordeal

Sometimes
I want to travel
The length of prismatic deeps
With no foreseen horizon or marvel

Sometimes I just want not to exist outside love…

Tell me about yourself, who is Isabel Paulo?

I don’t know if I should describe myself as a person or as a poetess… or if by chance the person and the poetess are the same at all. Or even if I take myself seriously as a poet, since I don’t see myself fitting the description of one. (Is there such a description?) When I try to fit into descriptions I usually discover that I could as well fit the opposite. Or maybe I am afraid of facing who I really am.

No Longer Me

I am no longer who I was
I am not yet who I want to be
Tortured by erratic love
And harsh winds from the sea

When I cannot escape a description, I usually say that I am just like any other human being, capable of good and bad things. I have strong convictions, yet I am pliable enough to adjust to different people and situations. My interests are diversified and change frequently. I need that change because I get easily bored.

I enjoy family life. Family is a strong organism. Strange too. One day we can feel safe and happy. The next day we can feel miserable. I definitely enjoy the sun. With the picture I selected I want to show a good moment in my life: reading and enjoying the sun at our naval club.

I was educated in Europe but I don’t fit there any longer. Still, I am not truly African. I tend to live in an island, so any place can be good for me as long as I am allowed to live on that island. Sometimes I can feel African. It’s a rush of color and sound. Happiness can be kilometers of pristine space or the simple way African people enjoy life.

Lioness

The name of my beloved
Hit the wild emptiness
My call changed to roar
For I am his lioness

I write professionally. I can write about anything. (In my own language, of course.) That comes from working as a newspaper editor. I had to know all kind of subjects. More recently, I’ve been ghostwriting books.

Tell me about your blog, about the name and what it means to you? When did you start blogging?

I started blogging just because my hands got used to “action”. Can you imagine how busy editing a newspaper is? I was capable of editing material and sleeping at the same time. The next morning I would be pleasantly surprised with the result. When the newspaper closed I turned to blogging and editing other less demanding things: newsletters, books, magazines…

“Tales From the Sea” is a diary. I picked that name just because the element sea is very present in my life - or at least should be. Poetry was very rare until I was invited to Poetry Potluck. I had phases.

What draws you to express yourself through poetry?

Poetry for me is about expressing emotions and thoughts. At the same time, it is an undercover sort of writing. You cannot trust a poet. I wouldn’t trust myself. Sometimes I feel that people take my words literally and that is not entirely wise.

I feel more comfortable with the idea of being a thinker than a poet. And if I have to find a reason to write poetry I would say “love”. I write poetry to understand love. And I’ve been reaching a few very interesting conclusions… Love can be very cruel.

Suppose someone adores you and then disappears from your life. That person leaves in you a taste difficult to match. Others will be always compared. And just because of that you can be unhappy, unsatisfied, unfulfilled for the rest of your life. Terrible, isn’t it? That’s how I write. I imagine situations that can have a relation with my own experiences or none at all. Recently I posted:

Laws of Attraction

The person who wrote
The amazing laws of attraction
Forgot 1 detail: warranty of satisfaction

I had on mind men and women complaining about unsatisfactory relationships. My own satisfaction or dissatisfaction isn’t necessarily (or mainly) dealt through words.

I like what I write for a very short period. This is a journalistic thing. It’s done? Let’s move to the next one.

Exile

Exiled of your words for too long
Silence is the foreign land
Where my dreams still grow

When did you first write a poem? Do you remember it?

I was first published when I was nine. My first poem was about blindness. I am very inconsequential in terms of writing. It never crossed my mind to make money out of poetry. Poets and poems should be as free as birds. Poetry books look to me like cages. Still I own a couple.

Favorite books? Authors?

I like African poets for their connection with nature. I love Brazilian poetry. It’s free, audacious and often associated with music. I appreciate the intense expressiveness of a couple of Portuguese poets. Florbela Espanca, with her doomed love poems, is amazing.

I am very much into Japanese short poetry, its straightforwardness and sobriety. I never think rules. I always think emotions. I studied just a little of English Literature. My teacher was a Shakespearean. She forgot about any other author and insisted in making us memorize entire parts of his work. I still recognize passages during television game shows, when most English speakers fail to do so.

What benefits there are from joining communities like Gooseberry Garden and Thursday Rally?

I feel more motivated to write. The Rally is a little bit more complicated for me, even if I have to recognize that I usually get a lot more visits and comments. Above all, I like the concept of sharing associated with poetry. I love reading other poets and enjoy being read. It’s the free expression aspect. I can understand the decision of making poetry profitable. Though, I still prefer the idea of sharing.

Deepness

The sea is so deep
I could only find it in thee
That deep so deep

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If you like to discover more about the sea and Isabel, visit her at "Tales from the sea".
Thank you for following Gooseberry Garden and today!
Stay tuned for Poetic reflection - week 4.
I am Blaga and I wish you a happy Sunday!

Poetic Reflections-Week 1

Welcome to Poetic Reflections. I am Blaga and I will be introducing you to poets of our community every Sunday! Today we will meet CC Champagne. Enjoy the interview and for more- visit her HERE.

Tell us about yourself...

I am CC Champagne, an extroverted hermit, clueless know-it-all and shy seductress, all rolled into one magnum sized bottle of sparkling attitude, served icy cold with a steaming side-dish of self-doubt and depression. Technically I'm old enough to know what I have but still young enough to use it (which I sometimes do very, very well). Like everyone I have my off days (and have had both off weeks, months and years in the past), but with the help of poetry, patient friends and family and sometimes excruciating psycho-analysis I am slowly finding my feet.

Currently based just outside Stockholm, Sweden I am a Swedish woman with an English mind (that never seems to shut up) and a heart that beats for all things Swiss, words and handsome men with silver tongues. I don't know if there is much more to say? *smile* (http://ccchampagne.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/interview-with-myself/)

Tell me about your blog and the name, what does it mean to you?

Originally A Glass of Bubbly (http://ccchampagne.wordpress.com/), along with the name CC Champagne, came to me while taking burlesque classes at Burleskakademien, Stockholm (http://burleskakademien.se/), in 2009. Seeing myself as more fully grown woman than some of the other girls (both in age and size) I wanted something that would give off sparkles for my first, and as I thought at the time only, performance on stage. My first suggestion was Alotta Champagne, but one of my fellow students immediately associated this with Alotta Vagina from The Gold Member/The Spy Who Shagged Me films, and you don't need more erotic misunderstandings when you are a burlesque performer! For a few months I performed as a part of a burlesque troupe, but when I started doing intense psycho-analysis I just couldn't keep up. One day I may return to it, but for now that part of my persona is dormant. Finding the name CC Champagne made the choice of a name for my blog A Glass of Bubbly natural.

Until June of this year I had never posted anything on A Glass of Bubbly though, so in a way I am just re-using something new in a different way. Both the burlesque experience and my blogging are things that are helping me feel better about myself, making me realize I am entitled to my place and the space I take up and that sometimes me being me can actually help others become who they ought to be.

When did you start blogging?

In April, at Random Misanthrope (http://randommisanthrope.com/). I was absolutely petrified the first time I posted something. From June I set out on my own with A Glass of Bubbly.

Do you remember the first poem you wrote?

Oh, dear... *blushing* The first poem I remember writing was for my mother on Mother's Day one year... I was probably between ten-twelve and I couldn't afford to buy her a present so I drew her a card and scribbled a poem. It was in Swedish, but the sentiments were that since I couldn't afford flowers I hope she could make do with the daisies I had drawn and the knowledge that my love for her was priceless. I probably wrote poems even earlier, but I only remember short stories before then...

What inspires you the most to write?

I find my inspiration absolutely everywhere, but that doesn't mean what comes out of it is any good, though! Anything from the shape of a cloud over-head (http://ccchampagne.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/cumulu/) to a discarded cigarette-butt on the ground (http://ccchampagne.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/what-we-leave-behind/) can make words pop into my head... At least lately.

Miss Kitten (http://www.misskitten.org/), a poet I truly admire, re-acquainted me with the word prolific a while back... Over the past few months I have embodied that word and it is just so wonderful to have the words in my head spill out rather than stay bottled up.  

Of course emotions of all kinds inspire more than anything else...

When did you start writing poetry? Do you write fiction as well?

Before April I hadn't written anything in a very long time. As a teenager riddled with angst and self-doubt I spouted what feels like millions of poems (mostly bad) in both Swedish and English, but the earliest I can remember is the mother's day poem previously mentioned.

I have a dream to some day try my hand at fiction as well, yes. I did that too as a teenager, but after once comparing my fiction scribbles with the, in my opinion much superior ones of a very dear friend around the age of 15 I have never got back into it. I am my own harshest critic and find it difficult to start since I am convinced I will fail.

Favorite author? Poet?

Tough question, very tough question! I don't have a favorite poet since what I like very much depends on my mood or where I am in life, but I have a favorite poem, one I hope will one day be put in my obituary, and that is Song, by Christina Rossetti (http://www.poetry-archive.com/r/song.html).

Again, favorite author also depends on my mood... I had a teenage obsession with Stephen King, but that has passed (thankfully).

Favorite quote?

"Here is my final point. About drugs, about alcohol, about pornography and smoking and everything else. What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, say, think, who I fuck, what I take into my body - as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?" - Bill Hicks, American Comedian

Plans about writing in the future?

To paraphrase Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind: Frankly, my dear... I have absolutely no idea! *smile*

At some point I suppose I have to grow up and start thinking about all the time I'm spending writing and what I'm doing with it, but for now... I'm perfectly happy just writing.

Any advice to poets who wish to start their own poetry community or to create just a blog?

I don't believe I am the person to ask, since I am making this blogging thing up myself as I go, trying to make heads or tails of the blogosphere. The one advice I would give anyone who wants to be creative in any way, on or off-line is to not be scared. Fear is the kryptonite of creativity. Fear and priorities.

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Happy Sunday to everyone!