'Potato Eaters' Is Food For Thought
âPotato Eatersâ Is Food For Thought
By Nancy K. Crevier
The cover of Potato Eaters speaks volumes about the words written within it. Eight youngsters are caught mid-action on and about a backyard swing set, the clothing evoking the mid-1950s, the childrenâs facial expressions suggesting myriad changes about to happen. It is a family photograph of the authorâs motherâs family and friends.
Potato Eaters, a collection of poetry written by former Newtown resident Amy Nawrocki, will be published by Finishing Line Press this November. The 21-page manuscript was the 2007 finalist of the Codhill Poetry Chapbook Prize from Codhill and is a sampling of years of writing that have earned her recognition and awards from numerous publications around the country.
Ms Nawrocki grew up in Sandy Hook and is a 1991 graduate of Newtown High School. She received her bachelorâs degree from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and a masterâs of fine arts in poetry from the University of Arkansas. She is currently an instructor of English and creative writing at the University of Bridgeport.
âThe first poem I actually remember shaping was about my momâs cancer diagnosis, when I was in high school,â said Ms Nawrocki. âThen I didnât write a whole lot more until my senior year when I did some fiction writing and some play writing. It was really a freshman English class in college that helped me focus on poetry, and Iâve been writing since then,â she said.
She grew to love the modern poets and was particularly influenced by the works of e.e. cummings. âI think it was that unstructured style, or we might say today âfree style,â that appealed to me. Later, I read a lot of Wallace Stevens, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson and grew to appreciate those great poets,â said Ms Nawrocki. Today, it is the poetry of Linda Gregg or Elizabeth Bishop that inspires her. âI read a lot of poetry and fiction journals, both online and hard copy, and I often will pick up a collection by a new poet,â she said.
It is her mother, however, who died when the author was 16 years old, as well as her father who raised the family, that directly and indirectly influenced the poems that make up Potato Eaters, she said.
âMy mother was certainly instrumental in raising us when I was younger, of course, so she does factor into my poetry somewhat,â Ms Nawrocki said. âBut my father and siblings also affect my writing, and I think one of my favorite poems in the chapbook, âIn The Backyard,â is really an overview of my childhood. There is a line about [my mother] watching us play, âa ghostly green light from the kitchen,â that is a reflection of her still being with us, even after she had died,â said Ms Nawrocki.
The essence of her mother swirls through several other of the poems that make up Potato Eaters, as well. âWhat I need is the rocking/ of a motherâs voiceâ read lines from âEvery Vineâs Wall.â Her motherâs fight with cancer is outlined in metaphors in âVan Goghâs Ear,â and in âTissueâ the reader feels the writerâs loss, âPirating treasure-kisses/left on the counter.â It is from a line in the poem âVan Goghâs Ear,â referring to a painting by Vincent Van Gogh of that name, that the title of the book is taken.
The poems in the chapbook are also a record of growing up, and of finding out who you are growing up, said Ms Nawrocki. âI selected the poems for this manuscript because they seemed to go together in the realm of family and growing up, daily situations, and coming to terms with identity,â she added.
The poetry in Potato Eaters and much of her other poetry is infused with imagery: âBails of hay/ line up like troubadoursâ¦,â ââ¦our car teeters on the canyon edge/ overlooking our girlhoodsâ¦,â âBuckets in the foyer/ harvest the rainstorm that descends from the ceiling.â It is imagery, the ability to paint a picture in the mind of another, that is her strong suit when writing poetry, Ms Nawrocki said, and her willingness to pull from her personal life and the life around her.
But not all of her poetry is personal, said Ms Nawrocki. âVery often I write imagistic poems capturing a time or place, even things I donât know myself, which can be very difficult. I like to use sensory experiences and give that to the reader,â she said. âI try to find new ways of looking at things that might be considered ordinary, or a fresh way of saying something,â she said. It is often later, after she has seen, done, or read something, that the details make connections that turn to poetry, said Ms Nawrocki. Often she finds that a poem has taken her in a direction other than where she thought it was going.
âEvery poem is different in how it takes off,â she said. âCertainly I try to look for details in everyday things, but it is not necessarily in the forefront all of the time. Whatever we do will factor into our writing, but writers will choose to what extent they care to share a personal experience with readers,â she explained.
There is no one formula for writing for this poet, she said. âSometimes it is just a word or a line that comes to me. Once in a while a whole poem gels and I put it down on paper. It doesnât work so well for me to force the writing. I think it is better to find the idea and then write about it later,â said Ms Nawrocki.
She is particularly proud of the upcoming publication of Potato Eaters. She had entered this manuscript in at least ten venues prior to it being selected nearly simultaneously as the finalist of the Codhill Poetry Chapbook Prize and being picked up for publication by Finishing Line Press. âI completed it a little over a year ago. It is a culmination of many years of rejections and of trying again and again,â she said.
Potato Eaters is available for pre-order now, for $12, by visiting homeofpotatoeaters.books.officelive.com/default.aspx and selecting Finishing Line Press. The paperback will be released on November 3.
âI hope that people read them and enjoy [the poems],â said Ms Nawrocki, âand relate to them on some level. I try to be accessible.â