“Where, Once, Stars Could Be Seen” and “Near the Field with Stephanie” by Kelly R. Samuels appeared in Issue 32 and can be read here.
We’d love to hear more about this pair of poems.
Both these poems stem from a series that focuses on place and the impact it can have on us. I had done close to twenty poems that were situated in interior spaces and wanted to expand to the exterior. “Where, Once, Stars Could Be Seen” is very much autobiographical—generated from memories of a field and an outdoor theatre I went to as a girl. I wanted to capture how that space has changed and how that change saddens me. “Near the Field with Stephanie” is also autobiographical and is about a college friend of mine and a moment where I realized I might not know her as well as I thought.
What was the most difficult part of this set?
Staying true to the memory of each.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
This is difficult for me because I am an avid reader, especially of contemporary fiction and poetry…but I will adhere to the given restraints and recommend Franny Choi’s poetry collection Soft Science. The subject matter is cool and her use of sound devices in the poems, as well as her construction, is interesting.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
I have to pick Margaret Atwood. She’s smart and witty. There would not be a dull moment.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
I have just begun work on a series about the body that will hopefully progress into a manuscript. I broke my wrist in two different places playing tennis this summer and had surgery. The experience got me thinking about how quickly we can become incapacitated and forced to slow down, as well as how both fragile and resilient the body is. I’m in the early stages—writing some and reading nonfiction texts like Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal and Suleika Jaouad’s Between Two Kingdoms.
Our thanks to Kelly for taking the time to answer a few questions and share these poems. Read “Where, Once, Stars Could Be Seen” and “Near the Field with Stephanie” here: https://www.sequestrum.org/poetry-by-kelly-r-samuels.
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Kelly R. Samuels is the author of the full-length collection All the Time in the World (Kelsay Books) and two chapbooks: Words Some of Us Rarely Use and Zeena/Zenobia Speaks. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee with work appearing in The Massachusetts Review, RHINO, Permafrost, The Pinch, and Salt Hill. She lives in the Upper Midwest.