Date: Fri 02-Apr-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: JAN

Quick Words:

library-poetry-Lamson

Full Text:

An Evening Of Poetry

(with photo)

BY JAN HOWARD

Poetry lovers can celebrate National Poetry Month with the poems of Sandy Hook

resident Suzy Lamson and Linda Clair Yuhas of Waterford.

The C.H. Booth Library will present An Evening of Poetry Friday, April 9, at

7:30 pm, in the new meeting room. A dessert reception will follow with an

opportunity to meet and visit with the poets.

Ms Lamson, a resident of Sandy Hook for nine years, will be reading from her

recently published work, A Rose Between Her Teeth , which includes 46 poems,

and Ms Yuhas will read from her collection, A Sense of Season.

Ms Lamson writes about country living, modern appliances, pets and family

relationships, as well as the usual topics of love, death and religion. Her

poems range from humorous to lyrical.

Ms Lamson grew up in New York City. Several years ago, she embarked on an

experiment in communal living in northern California with 25 hippies.

She talks frankly about the 15 years she lived without electricity in the

woods of Horse Creek, where she raised her two daughters. While they had some

amenities in the commune, there was no electricity for laundry and other

needs.

"I don't know how I did it, but I'm not going back to no electricity," Ms

Lamson declared emphatically.

Living without electricity for so many years accounts for her poems that

reflect on the pleasures of modern appliances, such as "In Praise of Maytag"

that states "No more quarters! I'm done with quarters/I'm done with

laundromats/the washers, the dryers, the coin-op dispensers./No more quarters"

and a another entitled "Wisk and Shout."

She said her fiance once said to her, "I know the way to your heart --

Maytag."

"Some women want diamonds and furs," Ms Lamson said, laughing. "I'm for a

washing machine. I must be obsessed with cleanliness and laundry."

After living in an isolated commune for so many years, her feelings about what

true country living means is reflected in a poem about Connecticut living,

entitled "Only a City Person Calls it Country."

"I've always been writing poetry, but I've pursued it seriously since 1988,"

she said.

While she lived on the west coast, she took a creative writing course, and

when poetry became the topic, "I knew that was it," she said.

"I love words. I copy phrases, and have kept a journal from 1983 on," Ms

Lamson said. She shuns formal journals in favor of spiral bound notebooks. "I

don't feel up to the beauty of special books."

Ms Lamson describes her poetry as sometimes lyrical, sometimes ironic. "It has

some passion. I describe small events, giving them a larger perspective. A lot

of my poems are about my feelings about relatives."

She said her poems are also "angry and joyful about love." They reflect all

the human feelings.

Her poems are often inspired by something someone says or a story she hears,

Ms Lamson said. "It is experiences that make words come out in poetry."

Ms Lamson graduated from New York University with a degree in English. She has

worked as a librarian on both coasts, including a stint as children's

librarian in Oxford. Currently, she is not working.

"I don't want to be totally defined by anything," Ms Lamson said. "When we are

involved with a job, we define ourselves with our job. We're larger than

that."

"I'm willing to give my work hours to my employer, but the rest of my time is

for creative time or with friends and family," she added.

She explained her need for time for solitude, "for a sense of regeneration and

quiet."

Ms Lamson has been a featured reader at bookstores and coffeehouses in

Connecticut, and her poetry has appeared in several small press magazines

internationally and in the United States.

Ms Lamson said Ms Yuhas is a friend as well as a fellow poet. "We critique

each other's work." She noted Ms Yuhas writes "more informed" poetry, drawing

upon things she observes, such as during a trip to Chile, or what she

imagines, such as what dreams her dog might have.

Ms Lamson said, "Our circles overlap. Linda and I are in a poetry group of

nine women, Artemis Rising, which meets in Middletown every other week. It is

a framework of intellect and art.

"We both write about the dynamics we observe in other people," Ms Lamson said.

"I listen to other people and artfully add to what they say."

Ms Lamson, who admires the works of poets Marge Piercy, Edna St. Vincent

Millay, and Emily Dickinson, said she only decided to self publish her work

because of requests she received after reading her poems at bookstores and

coffeehouses.

"I am not comfortable using my art for commercial means," she said. "I do it

for the process of doing it and the pleasure of sharing it with others."

To date, she has sold about 80 copies of the book and given several away.

The poems of Ms Yuhas have appeared in a number of literary journals. She has

recited her work at public venues in Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, and

North Carolina and has led workshops in poetry and writing from myth. She is

co-editor of the new journal, The Underwood Review. She works for the

Connecticut Judicial Department as a family court mediator and evaluator. She

is married and has two grown children.

A Rose Between Her Teeth and A Sense of Season were published in cooperative

ventures through Hanover Press of Newtown in 1998. The books are distributed

through PW Distributors, Box 542, Newtown, CT 06470.

Copies are also available for purchase at Baileyick Books in New Milford.

A copy of the book can be borrowed from the C.H. Booth Library. It is also in

the non-circulating Newtown authors collection.

Ms Lamson said, "One of the highest moments for me was to give copies of my

book to the library."