Post by audreyba112 on May 30, 2013 22:51:04 GMT -5
Cleopatra Mathis embodies what an American poet should be. With her gift for empathy she writes precise and personal poetry that speaks volumes to readers. The subtle emotional nuances in her poems are strikingly relatable and accurate and allow for a deep appreciation of the art of poetry.
Born into a Greek family in the rural Louisiana town of Ruston in 1945, Cleopatra Mathis was never expected to amount to anything more than running the family café. Her family was uneducated and focused primarily on making a living, an environment that did not lend itself to the development of a future poet. Luckily for Mathis, her third grade teacher, a woman by the name of Dr. Mary Wilson, noticed her and her interest in literature. Mathis read through her classroom’s small library and began writing, believing she had read all the books that existed in the world and to contribute, must write some herself. It was not until many years later as she taught high school English in the 1970’s that Mathis fell in love with 20th century poetry and began her career.
Shortly after receiving her Masters of Fine Arts from Columbia in 1978, Mathis published her first book of poetry. She currently has six published works, the most recent being Book of Dog in 2012. All of her poetry benefits from her use of natural elements combined with those of human emotion and experience. Mathis drives her message home without using wordy language to articulate every thought and feeling, preventing readers from getting “sidetracked or distracted by the language of the poem.” Her imagery, metaphors and carefully selected subjects work to, in her words, “further something, to bring things together that ordinarily wouldn’t be seen.” This allows her to, for instance, write a poem about wolves that leaves the reader despairing over a broken relationship. Or one about ducks that rings with compassion and injustice.
A deep appreciation for the environment lead Mathis to be affected by everything from the lush, green Louisiana landscape to the biting cold of New Hampshire where she works at Dartmouth College. The ocean had a profound impact on her, leading her to new ideas and inspiration. Mathis finds the ocean to represent “not only overwhelming beauty but insufferable loss and indifference” and says, “the only physical thing that seems to come close to representing the soul’s mystery for me is the ocean, something so huge and unknowable that no one could really take it wholly in.” Mathis tries to uncover the “soul’s mystery” through taking “huge emotional risks” with her writing. Many of the topics she covers are pretty heavy as she draws a lot of inspiration from emotionally charged events in her life, such as the death of her brother, almost losing her daughter from depression, a hard divorce, and so on. Over time Mathis’ poetry became a response to life events, a way for her to work through her complex emotional turmoil and “to ‘see’ rather than look away” from her flawed nature.
Believing the poet’s role to “illuminate meaning, rather than obscure it,” Mathis explores the nuances of human emotion and works to convey her findings through her poetry. Here to join us today, I welcome Cleopatra Mathis.
Word count: 539
Born into a Greek family in the rural Louisiana town of Ruston in 1945, Cleopatra Mathis was never expected to amount to anything more than running the family café. Her family was uneducated and focused primarily on making a living, an environment that did not lend itself to the development of a future poet. Luckily for Mathis, her third grade teacher, a woman by the name of Dr. Mary Wilson, noticed her and her interest in literature. Mathis read through her classroom’s small library and began writing, believing she had read all the books that existed in the world and to contribute, must write some herself. It was not until many years later as she taught high school English in the 1970’s that Mathis fell in love with 20th century poetry and began her career.
Shortly after receiving her Masters of Fine Arts from Columbia in 1978, Mathis published her first book of poetry. She currently has six published works, the most recent being Book of Dog in 2012. All of her poetry benefits from her use of natural elements combined with those of human emotion and experience. Mathis drives her message home without using wordy language to articulate every thought and feeling, preventing readers from getting “sidetracked or distracted by the language of the poem.” Her imagery, metaphors and carefully selected subjects work to, in her words, “further something, to bring things together that ordinarily wouldn’t be seen.” This allows her to, for instance, write a poem about wolves that leaves the reader despairing over a broken relationship. Or one about ducks that rings with compassion and injustice.
A deep appreciation for the environment lead Mathis to be affected by everything from the lush, green Louisiana landscape to the biting cold of New Hampshire where she works at Dartmouth College. The ocean had a profound impact on her, leading her to new ideas and inspiration. Mathis finds the ocean to represent “not only overwhelming beauty but insufferable loss and indifference” and says, “the only physical thing that seems to come close to representing the soul’s mystery for me is the ocean, something so huge and unknowable that no one could really take it wholly in.” Mathis tries to uncover the “soul’s mystery” through taking “huge emotional risks” with her writing. Many of the topics she covers are pretty heavy as she draws a lot of inspiration from emotionally charged events in her life, such as the death of her brother, almost losing her daughter from depression, a hard divorce, and so on. Over time Mathis’ poetry became a response to life events, a way for her to work through her complex emotional turmoil and “to ‘see’ rather than look away” from her flawed nature.
Believing the poet’s role to “illuminate meaning, rather than obscure it,” Mathis explores the nuances of human emotion and works to convey her findings through her poetry. Here to join us today, I welcome Cleopatra Mathis.
Word count: 539