Page 7 - The Clare Connection_Winter 2019 Flipbook

“The Clare community is an ongoing artistic collaboration,”
Carol says. “What is better than poetic jamming with your
“The Clare community is an ongoing community?”

artistic collaboration,” Carol says. Since 2011, Carol has volunteered and conducted poetry
workshops in Chicago elementary schools and held a poetry
“What is better than poetic jamming reading at The Museum of Contemporary Art and The Clare.
with your community? ” Since her move to Chicago, she also published two poetry
anthologies: Poetize and Mother of Pearl.
The second, Mother of Pearl, contains a poetic drama of
“Circumference Press published a chapbook of patients’ Hester Prynne, the Mother of Pearl. It was nominated by two
poetry at the state mental hospital, Longview,” she recalls. of Carol’s editors in 2017 for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
“The writer’s workshop named the book, Longerview. “I felt honored and humbled, and my muse danced,” Carol

Above all else, poetry is Carol’s calling, and she always aims says of the nomination.
to honor it. Today, Carol continues to mentor aspiring poets, and has
ARTIST PROFILE “Writing poetry is musical,” Carol says. “It celebrates the never stopped writing herself.
silent music of the mind and the world of nature. A poem
mimes the chime.” “Each poem is a place to live until my imagination evicts me,”
she says. “That’s why my Ohio license plates say, ‘Poetize,’
‘Artists Never Retire’ which is a verb, after all.”
Carol’s retirement from the University of Cincinnati did not
represent a true retirement from teaching or poetry. She
went on to poetize full time, mentored poets in workshops
and enjoyed family life.
Early retirement also afforded Carol the opportunity to
continue her work with Circumference Press, publishing
special projects. For example, her local Kroger grocery store
cashier confided to Carol that she had written short, poetic
fables and stories. The result: Circumference Press published
The Book of Fabulories.
“My goal is to get the first poem out loud, in print, of poets
who have never seen themselves in print,” Carol says. “Every
voice is worth hearing. Everyone, no matter who they are, is
a poem in progress.”

Carol brought this practice to Chicago, which she calls “The
City of Open Arms,” when she moved to The Clare in 2011.
Here, the inspiration of having poets write about art resulted
in collaboration between a fellow Clare resident and members
of an early Clare poet’s workshop. Photos by Claire Laque Marshall

Chicago A.M. Let Morning Come

A midnight lake breaks blue. Coffee twisting sheets, news, Lakeshore drivers lurch and Naked or bundled, sing
Dawn scribbles violet, rolling over stop a red tide. where you are.
orange, scarlet, Cabbies stretching, yawning Tongues waggle, mumble as The Downbeat then -
Grey scatters my walls honking scores pounding “forever yours” - “love” -
Pianissimo please Sirens smear children Dreams and feet - stories Especially to strangers.
Let Morning Come. rubbing gritty eyes wet Then the salutation — “dear”
Doors open hallways - Rain and fog - Chicago has Not a single stray cat.
running to catch - no syntax. Let Morning Come.
Busses schools communters Windy so hang on. The Side
- keeping time. Walks.
The elderly stir as slowly
As the homeless
Let Morning Come.