The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/28770
Casual Chit Chat You are the first Poet Laureate of Delaware County (an honor you received in 2005); how did that come about? I was nominated by a couple of people, and the supervisors voted on it and decided it was a good idea. There have been gradu- ally more and more poets of counties in New York state. You are a prolific poet and writer; who is your favorite famous poet _ the one who you first remember thrilling you with words? I’m glad you asked that question. The one who influenced me most when I was younger was Theodore Roethke. His work is so beau- tiful and strange. Where do you write, and do you have to be in a certain mood to create something? I take notes. If I see some- thing that is interesting to me or that I think I should re- member, I take notes. I write in my home office. I usually write at 4 in the morning or 5 in the morning. I get up early. I usually have to do a lot of work on a poem. I can’t just sit down and write one. The notes that I’ve taken are usually what starts a poem, and then I hammer away at it. It is National Poetry Month, which is every April; how do you cel- ebrate it? Poetry’s im- portant, but it’s easy to over- look. There’s that quote by William Carlos William _ “It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” If someone dies or there’s some special event, people want a poem. A lot of people have this thing where they say, “I hate poetry,” and then it stops there. But good poetry is the essence of thought and feeling, I think. What happens at art- ist colonies such as the MacDowell Colony, which is one of several at which you’ve had residency fel- lowships? I heard back in the ’60s and ’70s people had a lot of fun. But when I go to an artist colony, I go there to work and have dinner with people with like minds. People are serious about their work, and they work very hard. They’re wonderful places. They’re places that take care of you so you can do your work and not have to worry about other things, which is a lovely, lovely thing. I try to go every couple of years. It seems that your art- work often incorporates words into visuals; what inspires your art and how do you choose which artists to feature in Bright Hill Press’ Word and Im- age Gallery? I like the idea of words and images together. Ancient illuminated manuscripts have always interested me. Both the design element and the contextual element are important to me. We have a postmarked deadline of Nov. 30, and we usually book for a year or two in advance. Some artists for 2012 are already booked. The idea is that the word and media are supposed to be integral to one another, and that’s easier said than done. We get some really wonder- ful art; we’ve been lucky with the art we’ve gotten. I don’t know of another gallery Poet Bertha Rogers, also director of Bright Hill Press, and Cassandra Miller chit chat, casually. Each week, we have a casual conversation with a member of the community. This week, You designed sets, costumes and props at various theaters in the ’70s and ’80s. What drew you to theater and why did you change your career focus? My first husband and I ran not-for-profit theaters _ You can tell I’m an expert in not-for-profit. I did the visuals of it and I got out of it shortly after we split up. You were the project di- rector of an exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Five Historic Dolls.” How did you get involved with it? Are you also a doll expert? around here that has that as the mission of the gallery. Do you do all of the cover art for books published by Bright Hill Press, for which you are the founding director and editor in chief? I do a lot of it. A great deal of it. We have a lot of poets. Well, you should be able to see a good poem. I always think of poets as visual artists of the word. We have a lot of poets who are also visual artists, and when that’s the case, we have used their work; we’re happy to do that. You’re an active educa- tor; what are some key lessons you hope students take away from your teaching? I’m a master teaching artist, and I travel around the state and teach writing and visual arts. And I feel lucky to do that. I don’t have pensions, so if I don’t work, I don’t get paid. But, I sort of always knew that I wanted to have that kind of freedom. I hope that students take away to be passionate about their work and willing to work really hard. I think if you’re serious about your work, you have to be willing to work really hard and willing to take other jobs. Because that’s the way it is. Poetry is more of an avoca- tion. Most of us have other jobs. I think that’s fine. I think it feeds the art. I designed a line of dolls for a company I was work- ing with in New York City that was collaborating with Doubleday. It was heroines from the world’s greatest lit- erature. There were 12 dolls all based on literature. I think the first was Scarlett O’Hara from “Gone with the Wind.” There was Daisy from “The Great Gatsby.” I even did Beatrice from “The Divine Comedy.” It’s probably the only Beatrice doll in the world. That was a wonder- ful project. I had a lot of fun doing that. Then there was a special project that the Met museum initiated and hired me for (after seeing the heroines of literature project) that was a collaboration with the Strong Mu- seum in Rochester. I designed dolls for other com- panies. I used to design collectible dolls and do the research for them. You were edu- cated in Iowa and Missouri; what brought you to the East Coast, and eventually upstate? I grew up in Iowa on a farm near a little town, and went to a couple of colleges, left and went to California then came to New York and then back to California and then back to New York and I raised my kids in New York (City). It’s a great place to raise kids. You never have to worry about them driving, so you don’t have to worry about car accidents. I came upstate in 1989 because I’d had enough with New York City car alarms. I looked in the New York Times and I ended up buying a house I saw in the Times ad. I took a bus up here and looked at places, and then I met my husband while doing a poetry reading at the Hunt Library in Oneonta _ in 1991, I think it was. There were four of us women writ- ers reading, and he came to the reading and we ended up getting together and then we got married a few years later. What is the best part about living in the One- onta area? It’s paradise. It’s so beauti- ful up here. I love the hills, the air. I like the people. And I’m always hoping that the children who take the workshops at Bright Hill will think that when they grow up and after college they’ll come back. That would be a wonderful time. People are leaving the area all the time. But, I hope the kids will like what’s happening so much that they’ll want to raise their own children here. You came back. I think it’s wonderful that you’re here and at The Star. A lot of times people just want to get out, but it’s a rich area and there’s so much to do up here, and it’s stun- ningly beautiful. I thought when I moved up here that I had come home, expect it wasn’t flat like Iowa. April 7, 2011 O-Town Scene 7