Saturday, April 14, 2012

Voice over

A couple of months after I started running, I decided to sign up for a race. A little 5k? No. A leisurely, sensible 10k? No. A half marathon. (Ten years later, this is still as far as I've run. I plateaued very early in my running career.)

When I decide to step out of my comfort zone, I tend not to tiptoe.

Which is why I find myself feeling a bit in-over-my-head on this project. I've never before written poems from any other perspective than my own. So, why not build a manuscript based on not one, but three, other voices -- especially when there is very little information available about these folks?

(That's then-little Edouard on the right. His father (Gaspard) and mother (Florestine) are -- at least so far -- also present in the manuscript.)


I've never written about anything more historical than my own childhood. So, why not wind back 130-some years to places I've only briefly visited?

And I've never written about subjects I don't know intimately. So, why not take on a world of cowboys, parenthood, freak shows and death?

Because all the crazy, far-fetched ideas I've had, the ones that have scared me most, seemed ridiculous and impossible, have consistently been the most full-filling experiences, the ones that have made me most proud.

2 comments:

  1. Hello Kerry. I am reading The Anatomy of Edouard Beaupré by Sarah Kathryn York and was searching the internet for possible poems about Beaupré when I came upon "Tall Order" from 2011. I was very excited to read that you are writing poems about him! I am a distant relative (by marriage--my Uncle Ovila, who brought his remains back to Willow Bunch for proper burial, was his nephew, and married to my mother's sister)I do hope you are still pursuing this project and would love to talk to you about it some time. All the best!

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