Judith Dupree is with us today chatting about her recently published book of poetry, in an unusually forward-looking way to losses, we spent our time in view of our complex society. Welcome to Reader Views.
Juanita: Judith, you wrote a beautiful book of poetry. What inspired you to write, "with life, what remains?"
Judith: Well, I would like to offer a pot of reasons, but the over-riding is my chosen mix of hope and despair: the expectation that buoys me all the time - butto eat more and to my sorrow for the decoding of our world.
And, as a citizen of "before the first world" nations, nibble my shame. Many
The factors behind it: our dysfunctional cultural mindset (". In greed we trust"), our political madness, our
increasing polarization and "dismemberment". This includes many different aspects, but all
The causes are interrelated, of course. We control our environment to unravel, and know, at the bottom
thatthere are all the participants - each of us has received the "charge" to live differently ("Less is more") in
Given what we know and address issues affecting convoluted. We do not rarely have more than
shaking his head and finger, and the enthusiasm of all (or deny) - try to live well with
that "elephant in the living room." Or the oil in the pool? This is an essential aspect of
my need to write this book. I think you might like a sort of jeremiad?However, there are a lot of yin
and Yang in the book.
Juanita: Why do you think that afflict so many people to deny the obvious dysfunction
these days?
Judith: Oh, another pot! I must say that it is hard to be "human." It 'difficult to collect
Head and look beyond their own needs and desires, and accept the harsh reality that surrounds us are
- And respond sensitively, effectively. That alone accounts for much"Strauss
Effect. "(The poor bird has a rap ass with that!) Playing in our individual prejudices and
Argues, is largely unknown or unconfirmed, of course, and our fear of
something that threatens our way through life stable. We do not want to be placed in question
terribly! We do not want to know that life is so thin and strong decisions that we
do - mainly because the right decisions have not been established for ourFathers and their fathers. If
Alas, we can erase the future (as well as our Grampa political / business) and cling to what we have with
Toughness, maybe not lose grip on it. Close your eyes, click the shiny red heels and spin!
We lived mostly in Oz.
It 'scary - growing, for us adults. Add a ladle of stew this license, which has
Greed coagulated. Our corporate mentality, our CEO complex. He that is. In spades.
And, finally,taking into account all these (and all that I have omitted), does not really want to know God;
that, in words, as we observed pale. . . and only if you choose to watch over us.
Two of which are by far, things are very different. If we do this, we will elaborate fig leaf is not shielded
us. (Even the emperor's clothes were ...)
Juanita: This is a book of Christian poetry and if so, will attract only a Christian audience?
Judith: It's actually "Christian"Context, a disciple of Christ. But this is not or should not be
Obstacle to the reader. In addition to this base and it's my first response as a member
of humanity, the whole thing. I've always seen, perhaps as Basic Instinct, a deep sense of
the pain of humanity. He began long before my open spiritual awareness, I fed on plants
Writers of the past - their sharp observations and complaints and their dreams of something better, bigger, which
what they saw before them. Rumi comes to mind. The Greek philosophers, of course. And Latin
Poet. I literally inhaled their "operations" during my student days, and spent all his life
Sorting and paging, the adoption and adaptation. And if the message of Christ was more than
spiritual conviction, jellied. So - to ask for the "attractiveness" of this work, I would say, "reads like
Cry of humanity itself. "When you write something about this, I felt that Inaked before the world,
say, "throw off everything - all the dirty rags, go skinny-dipping." (And this from a very old lady!)
We're all in this together, and I suspect they swim together, or perish in the end. I therefore
that this is not just a "Christian book" in the sense that we too often weighing and measuring concepts.
I do not want to write with this concept as a priority.
Juanita: What is the theme that connects the book of poems?
Judith: I, Said that it would be an over-ride the sense of both the sacred and profane are. How are
endlessly before us. And as they rub against each other in that both balance and unbalance each
others. There is no phenomenon without its counterpart: thesis, antithesis. We pass through life in a
Balancing act in a way to test stability. In truth, not always recognize what "imbalance" really
it is not. I come from the thin thread of reality has been more than once, of course. And 'primarily aSense of
sacred that kept me in a sort of stasis, where a point to fix my eye. A walk
Direction. All this is thematic for me. These poems are my go, what to take with me, what I found at:
The growing darkness, and the incredible vastness of life and the wonderful tenacity
human soul to renewal. It penetrates and permeates the staff finally ness of God, offers
"Shelter" for us when it gets hard.
Juanita: How didCollection unfold on paper?
Judith: When I leafed through the pile up, I had to develop something - mulching - in it. My
personal manifesto, perhaps? One way to tell (with Martin Luther) "Here I Stand!" Honestly, I was
a little 'afraid to put it out there, with all the pain that it contains. But it was the beauty of life - the sacred
Antithesis - which gave me the push I needed.
Juanita: When did you start writing, and this is your first book?
Judith: Istarted writing when I started putting words on paper. Terrible, of course. My first
Efforts were easy ways to rhyme words, what I thought was everything.
During my adolescence and young adulthood, from time to time I blurped, harmless or terrible
Poems - love and existential despair, and so on. The usual. And I was bouncing between art (I
Portraits.) And write. I loved them both, but did not make sense. I finally got serious words, if the
Forty feared appeared before me. Ultimately he gave me a book: Going Home, © 1984 My next book
actually began in 1976, inspired by our bicentennial - and I wrote only sporadically during the
Decades, among other projects. It is a long historical narrative - a prose poem titled I Sing America -
rather than Whitman. (I have played its title, but the content is quite different.) I do not feel that resolved
constant until about four years ago. It ends with 9 / 11 Ireview copies, and had a couple of
observations, but never actually sold. And 'under review, and I release by quiddity
Press when done. An unusual journey ....
Juanita: Tell us about the cover of "living with what remains," and what it represents.
Judith: The cover of this book is simply an old, huge oak tree deaths in our small country.
This is one of the multiplied thousands lost in California in recent years of drought andDisease. A common
Symptom of our time. The tree skeleton imagined our century "for" and how
we are now exposed. The loss and survival again.
Juanita: What are some of your favorite jewelry, which give the pages of your book?
Judith: Yes, the famous beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the poems that most haunts me in
the process are probably my favorites, if only for this reason. It may not be the best, of course.
"Bramante It All" wasthat presses on me, I have my power "greed" of experience and will encapsulate
Nature. The poem "The Mantis" was a remarkable experience of transcendence. My husband and I were
is a part of it, and my sense of identity with all life on earth was really interested. The poem, I think
thorniest probably one that fits is: "Dear World". I literally do not know how to express
on paper, and finally made the long trip to the end. One of my experience has been more acutethe
Final "I bring you." And 'literally fell together in front of me. The Owl and looked at us with its infinite
"Whooo?" - As if we respond to him. As if we are able to respond to each other.
Juanita: What do you want your readers to come away with after reading your book?
Judith: I think it's shame (even indirectly) and share the hope. Under a long look
Humanity and its fragility and fortresses. . . and the intensification of the benchmark is the first
usvisible or invisible: "Do unto others ...." Sun This means that for those who come after us "to do"
not just around us. We leave our grandchildren a potential disaster. If it is almost inevitable,
Now we have a repository of hope. For me it is the kingdom of God, an "internal matter:" We
urgently to live. "Blessed are the meek and merciful, pure of heart, etc., because ...
inherit the earth. "And perhaps, Deo Volente, should renew it.But my principle is inflexible
we seek. Each of us, in some small incremental.
Juanita: Judith, what do people think that 'all hope is lost "to say to humanity?
Judith: I would really hope they do not understand. The hope is far from "pie in the sky", or a magic
Reversal or retrieval. This is a personal act-in that is spread from one election after another. The
comes to us as an understanding - a whisper, the deep soul, which states that "you can dothis. "O" do
dass "And we know, really. We hope to always have the ability to create, hoping to be accepted. One step
forward or backward, and we are on solid ground. Sacred Ground. Something happened, something
causes and influences, that is true and good - and see what we've actually done that
[Perhaps] a smaller selection. We will see that we move forward - even if, perhaps, especially when
have "stepped back" from some slight advantage.(Depth, we can fool with their depth oblique!) A
"Inch" of life has been restored by them. The hope is restored for only a few centimeters.
Faith and residence on behalf of our better self, thought by thought, we can create hope, even in
In the midst of despair, and despite the huge loss. We are moving away from the hustle and survival in a sort of
Genesis mode. There are other and come together, and we greet one another as part of this
create new ones. This is not stupidity, it isConvenience and the perseverance and preservation: the timeless
Kingdom of God in our midst.
Juanita: What writers are your inspiration?
Judith: Those that I mentioned in my student days. The top of my head: First, I found a lot of
of forage crops in frost-simple and elegant - and natural - looking at life and nature. His influence remains. Emily
Dickinson, of course. Some jobs Millay, written specifically "Renaissance", in an age so young!
Denise Levertov - andMary Oliver: Breathtaking! Some poets, good guy, known and unknown Whitman
person was a turning point, of course, for all those who follow after. Contemporary, John Leax (ie Out
Walk), a strong voice, Robert Wrigley, very accessible. Wendell Berry says, and everything, poetry
or prose. Solzhenitsyn, not a poet, for reasons no time. And with talented unknowns, I'm a poet
Friend in Oregon, David Kopp, who is discovered. (He has a book editor busy, churning out
allAnother writes.) There are a lot of David and Judith's out there. I have read some of them,
anxious for their witness of life. (Poetry magazines, and small dogs are a rich deposit. Rock & Sling, and IMAGE
come to mind. You know, good writers, when they see it, and give them a hand.)
Juanita: Tell us about your AD LIB writing and teaching poetry and creative efforts?
Judith: My motto could be: Make lemonade. You know the old adage. As it turned out that
I was on alonely path, and I was able to count too many times, I realized it was in part a symptom of a
biggest problem: The state of the arts in America. Too good artists and writers in the fight
Years without encouragement and recognition. Maybe I could put together a small "outreach" to get
Few of them, giving them something from a starting point. We have to ad lib, did exactly that for
10 years. We meet every fall in the Colorado Rockies. Nothing spectacular, justPeople come
together to share their art, travel and sip lemonade, so to speak. A couple of speakers and
Workshop. The principle that I mentioned earlier, "less is more" applies here in reality - in another
Context. There is no shame in a small town with a great talent, if you have community
support. I try to celebrate the diversity of God's grace and to heal every day in a way, and repair and to provide
Hope.
Teaching poetry / creative writing isin question, I have used provides
To do this from time to time in the past quarter century - in workshops and conferences, to retire
Homes and schools. Keep the edges smooth. Now I am developing an extensive network of art in our community,
which includes a series of rather small and scattered villages. We'll see where it goes, what
do together. Fun stuff!
Juanita: You and your husband have developed quiddity Press, a small publisher. Please
Tell us more, and your readers how to contact you.
Judith: Yes, QP is a glass of lemonade. I wanted others like me have a voice - a
experience creative, low-key way of structuring a publisher. E 'right now to a halt for lack of
of funds, primarily the need to come for someone with marketing skills (just my forte)
In addition, part-time, and get our little [on hold] inventory "out there". If this happens, you can
moreprogress. Visit this site: http://www.quidpress.com, and see what we want
bring to the table. Perhaps someone "out there" may be a new idea of how this dream
practicable.
Juanita: Judith, thank you for your interview. We are the last thoughts you want to share
with your readers?
Judith: Maybe this is: We all have a reservoir inside. Go skinny dipping. Leave the stress
. Find out what floats decrease upward, and be faithful toit. This is where the hand of God can be reached
