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nd then my ma both from james madison university i used all my electives to take english courses continued to write and published my first poem i was given awards from both the english department and psychology department during the next years i worked with several populations including battered women and the homeless mentally ill but i found my niche as a therapist working with inmates i relocated to central virginia to work with incarcerated sexual offenders after several years working with adults i transferred to a correctional center for juveniles where i continued to specialize in the treatment of sexual offenders and their families soon after leaving the shenandoah valley i met and married my husband a librarian he is sane stable and a calming influence in my life as i once heard joyce carol oates say on c span no one tells you that you re going to need somebody like that to write but you do if you don t have someone like that go find them ed and i are parents to three amazing children through adoption kaity was born in india and came home to us at age five she was quite the feral child as she was blind born without eyes and autistic she had never spoken a word and understood no english nor had she been potty trained or taught how to use a spoon travis was also born in india and came home to us as an infant he was actually our first child adopted a year or so before kaity and finally we adopted ryan an african american boy born in the united states he was only five months old when he arrived when my children were older i turned more and more attention to writing i became more focused and started submitting work to publishers receiving a number of rejections but also more acceptances than i expected my work has appeared in numerous print and online journals and has twice been nominated for the pushcart prize i m the author of two poetry chapbooks primitive pudding house press 2004 and local girls dead mule 2007 my first novel tomato girl is forthcoming from algonquin books in 2008 that same year forms of intercession my first full length collection of poems will be published by mayapple press jayne pupek august 2007 here s to you jayne photo courtesy of didi wood from jayne s doll poems on press 1 posted by arlene at 4 37 pm 20 comments wednesday october 28 2009 interview with liz gallagher in the event museum there is no pleasure like wine and no pleasure greater than drinking wine with liz gallagher while talking about her first full length collection of poems the wrong miracle salt publishing 2009 as part of their contract poets are given a superhero costume to wear during the interview just so they understand that we are dead serious arlene ang welcome to the event museum liz i hope you re comfy liz gallagher hi arlene it is lovely to be here at the event museum thanks for awakening me out of my non poetry slumbering life and getting me up and about again i so love the superwoman outfit that you had laid out on the couch for me as you can see i have slipped into it and also have delighted in the fact that my legs took on a new spurt of growth while doing so i am totally comfortable sitting here and yes if there is a large martini going i would be delighted hope you join me and i adore your outfit too i want your dressmaker s name after the interview aa i m pleased to say that our supporters have provided us with every type of liquor but no glasses it s probably a study on human adaptation just pick what you want and drink directly from the bottle it s perfectly okay talking of adaptation i ve always been intrigued that you were born in donegal ireland and have been living in grand canary island these past fourteen years what impact did this have in your writing would you have any poems that shout donegal or grand canary to you they don t necessarily have to be about these places but more of a feeling maybe how they remind you of a period or time there lg i really began writing while living here on gran canary island we are so fortunate as to live in a very beautiful and protected valley where there are only a few houses nearby so the quiet and relative isolation of the place is ideal for writing i think the fact that i am an outsider here even though i speak the language know lots of people and am quite involved in the community has also impacted on my writing as i can so easily go into objective mode and sort of remove myself from my roots so to speak and thus feel freer to actually write about personal and root like things i suppose there is some contradiction there i never really write while i m in ireland i take notes and jot down expressions and things i hear as the wealth of expressions and sayings that my parents and neighbours use is very inspiring and amusing one of the things i have found is that the minute i am on the plane out of ireland i am there with the food tray down writing away and usually it will be about ireland even if indirectly it will take maybe two months for me to shake off the irish experience and move on to other themes aa i noticed some religious elements in your book the wrong miracle even the title hints on an act of god gone wrong i remember exchanging notes with you once and talking about our catholic background in one of the poems there sun over a tree line i m fascinated by this image god becomes a ragged fellow who moves from tree to tree in the back of the mind he pursues the living and the dead stay dead will you tell us more about this poem it s almost as if god or religion is being relegated to the back of one s mind to be taken out only on special occasions like for an illness or a funeral i m also struck by the use of the verb become does this mean that we tend to use religion to suit our needs lg oh gosh yes g god in lower or capital does make his her way into my poems a lot i was never really aware of the pattern until putting the book together and thinking here we go again god god is everywhere i will confess to actually spending quite some time wondering whether to put g god in lower or capitals in some of the poems in the book after having written them and yes arlene i was brought up a catholic and was educated by the nuns and no doubt that has left its mark and it comes out in a sort of half rebellious way every so often in some poems this poem was written after the invasion of iraq there were protests and general disgust at this whole event happening it felt like a collapse of civilisation the fact that something so barbaric could happen in the 21st century and that the world stood by and let it happen the over riding feeling was one of chaos as shown by some of the images in the poem e g humpty dumpty hoof prints pedicures for dictators door frames collapsing dead bodies and water logged blankets and at the end i suppose god is being implicated in what is happening like the lurker behind the tree who comes to pick at the spoils i ve never really analysed this poem before but yes it is a move away from an all loving g god to one who is part and parcel of the chaos and the resulting deaths and to answer your question about using religion to suit our needs i think this is possible even though catholic religion as i know it has always been so boxed up and defined that i have never felt that i could make it adapt to my needs that in fact it was a case of adapting to it or nothing but yes i know what you mean about all of a sudden finding a purpose for a g god religion especially non institutionalised religion in times of grief and sadness aa another favorite poem cosmic noise is such a perfect depiction of marriage not just between two people but also between two opposing forces the pullmi pullyu bickering in the first stages then the establishment of balance i settle to enjoy lunch you settle to enjoy lunch two people their bearings found and settling would you relate this to your writing too can you discuss your own relationship with poetry lg i love your interpretation of this poem arlene and yes i do think that balance is needed to be able to write i cannot write if i am unhappy or worried the word settling to me is really important it s about that stretching out of one s legs and the sigh of contentment feeling that means turmoil is held at bay for a while but like you said the pullmi pullyu bickering is a sort of foreplay to settling as settling implies having been unsettled beforehand this is my relationship with poetry to a certain degree there are so many preludes interludes general life happenings that prevent me from writing and when i do actually get down to writing i always give a sigh of relief and since i physically write with my back against my study wall cushion between back and wall though and my legs stretched out before me on the study futon and laptop on lap then it is the physical act of settling as well as the psychological aa i have to say that after all this time episode iii the day the shelling started remains in my mind as one of the best poems i ve come across there s this haunting tango between the horrific and banal happiness the doctors said her tumors had shrunk a wedding took place across the street an artist in lebanon ties a microphone to his balcony to record the summer rain of bombs breaking the sound barrier he plays the trumpet in the background and sketches drawings in the hushed seconds of a starry night an ex hostage dreams of the blood letting being over he imagines one day sitting under a magnificent oak and letting the beauty of the place soak into him i ve always wanted to ask you about this poem what made you write it will you tell us more about zena el khalil to whom this piece is dedicated lg as you know arlene i have taken part in poem a day activities with yourself and others in inside the writers studio 30 30 forum it was during one of these 30 30 s that i wrote this poem just to explain to other readers 30 30 means writing a poem a day for 30 consecutive days it was in july 2006 and it was during the invasion of lebanon i used to read the guardian online every day to find out what was happening and i remember reading zena el khalil s account of being there during the invasion and it affected me greatly at one stage for about 10 days during this particular 30 30 i lost my internet connection but i didn t want to give up the poem a day activity nor to give up reading the guardian so i used to go to the nearest village which is 10 minutes away and go into a cyber café there to read and write my poems because it was duirng the summer holidays there used to be lots of young teenage guys there playing very loud computer war games and there i was stuck in the middle of them trying to get inspired to write poems actually most of the poems that came out of that time evolved around the invasion of lebanon and war in general the artist mentioned in the poem is a real person his name is mazen kerbaj he actually did record from his balcony the summer rain of bombs he blogs here www mazenkerblog blogspot com and has a 6 min 31 second recording of the bombing alongside saxophone improvisation another weird aspect that added to the war element was that in mid july the rabbit hunting season starts here on the island and the ironical thing is that where i live is big rabbit hunting ground it is ironical considering it is actually a protected valley but not for rabbits seemingly and every thursday and sunday there are loud gun shots which brought the whole horror of killing that little bit nearer aa wow i never imagined so many outside events influenced this poem the rabbit hunting came as a surprise it does sound harrowing you re such a gifted photographer too have you ever found yourself using images from your pictures in your poems or vice versa it would be interesting if you could point out some poems or stanzas in the book and show us what images inspired them lg arlene thanks that is very kind of you to say so funnily enough i have never used actual images as inspiration for writing i do have a visual memory though and find that just seeing words or phrases brings up the image for me and i can then go with that image i very much enjoy taking photographs and find it indirectly helps me get worked up and inspired to write aa okay here s a fun last question then we can go fishing do you have any bad habits that actually make you a better poet any suggestions to aspiring writers lg oh love this question arlene well one bad well maybe more odd than bad habit might be that i write in the dark with only the light of the computer screen i suppose in that sense i am a vampire writer it is a little ironical too considering the near constant light and brightness i have here on the island not sure why i write in the dark but know for sure i cannot write in the sunshine i also love writing with my night wear on this falls in line with the dark thing i suppose and the fact that i write at early dawn ish accompanied by the very welcome first cup of tea i am also a pre shower pre combing hair writer maybe it s the earthiness and primitive back to basics feel of it all that gets me going i am also quite obsessive a possibly or possibly not bad habit i obsess over whatever poem i happen to be writing but it is never long lived and usually within a few days i am obsessing about another poem i still consider myself to be an aspiring writer and the things i do that help me get writing would be things like disciplining ha myself to get involved in daily writing activities with other writers not taking myself nor the writing too seriously always being open to different types of writing and wanting to read read read as much poetry and other forms of writing as possible oh and one last thing what keeps me wanting to write is the need to recapture that feeling of excitement that comes from seeing a piece of writing take shape even if after a week or so on return to that piece of writing i sometimes begin to wonder what got me so excited about that particular piece in the first place and so the cycle begins again thanks so much for having me here arlene i so enjoyed slipping into the superwoman suit you had ready for me and i know it will be replacing my night wear to become my writing attire the questions you posed were so interesting even if it did take me a few months to settle down there is that word settle again and answer them next week i ll be crossing the atlantic to land in texas with brenda nixon cook at her the art of breathing blog i m looking forward to it a lot aa thanks so much for dropping by liz i look forward to seeing you at brenda s place if we catch enough fish i think she ll cook it for us i hear she s a mean cook posted by arlene at 11 45 pm 19 comments saturday august 08 2009 event museum rules there are those who would ask why do these museum employees write in the third person what happened to the first person was foul play involved by contract the museum staff is required to use the third person at 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