“Thought We Were Too Old for This,” “Sunday Drive to Mount Charleston,” and “Witchery” by Sherry Abaldo appeared in Issue 44 and can be found here.
We’d love to hear more about this set of poetry.
As an empty nester, I thought my life would go a certain way: rather sedate vacations, coastal grandmother-y visits with grown kids, finally learning to cook. My husband had other plans. He started a new business (precast concrete pools) that meant we had to relocate from Maine to Las Vegas (proximity to interstates). I was horrified. I didn’t know a soul there. I had never lived away from an ocean, a lake, a pond, a river, or a marina in my life. Our future was uncertain. We got rid of everything we didn’t need. My office became a backpack. It felt like we were just out of college again, not totally aware of things like how to pay a utility bill. But in all this disruption and uncertainty, and I confess at times more than a little anger and resentment, there was something else. Excitement. Vulnerability. Passion. Touch first. Skin first. Just diving in. We laughed more than we had in years. Probably cried more, too. We ate better. We slept better. We are thankful, all the time. I wanted to capture some of this wild unexpected gift, and as usual with the ineffable, I turned to poetry.
What was the most difficult part of this set?
In writing about eroticism, you’re always wanting to make sure it’s not pornographic on the one hand, and not sentimental on the other. I get quiet, get small, get soft with the material, and then meditate or go walk a dog (same thing?) before dropping down to craft.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
The book that I’ve been carrying around is Frank: Sonnets by Dianne Suess. I’m a huge fan of Rimbaud’s Illuminations and Seasons in Hell, especially in the original French, and Frank: Sonnets hits me where his poems do. Also David Ferry’s amazing translation of The Aeneid – I was lucky enough to be an English major at Wellesley when he taught there. He won the National Book Award at age 86 for Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
Single malt scotch with Sharon Olds in a seaside pub in the winter alongside a crackling fire. She writes the body masterfully, and I would love to discuss her views on feminism in this dot of whatever we’re living in. Dianne Suess would be welcome to join. I’d take infinite notes.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
I’m working on my first chapbook of poems, and a novel about two poets – one famed, one not – that I refer to as an arch, erotic journey into the power of imagination.
Our thanks to Sherry for taking the time to answer a few questions and share these poems. Read “Thought We Were Too Old for This,” “Sunday Drive to Mount Charleston,” and “Witchery” here.
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Sherry Abaldo’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Times, ONE ART, Rattle, SWWIM, Down East Magazine, and on The History Channel and PBS among other outlets. Her poem “Big Island” was nominated for Best of the Net by The Mackinaw: A Journal of Prose Poetry. She has worked as an award-winning journalist, film writer, and researcher on many projects, including the nonfiction World War II book The Dangerous Shore to be released in March. She lives with her husband in Las Vegas, Nevada and her native midcoast Maine. More at: www.sherryabaldo.com.