Birthing the Book

The plane flew into China through our beating hearts. . . –from “Traveling Song”

This December, I’m giving birth to my second child: a poetry book (It is faster to adopt from China than to write a poetry book about it). The Long Birth should be available by the second week of December, and if you want one, it can be ordered from me or through Amazon.com (the cost is lower if you buy from me, but I don't have gift wrapping! To order from me, contact vanstavern@gmail.com).

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When her husband had food poisoning, Jean shouted on the bus: “Ladies, I don’t care what he did. You do not want to do this alone.”
–from "Red Thread Weaving: The Families"

For a poet, at least for this poet, writing poems about a life changing, heart expanding, sleepless experience is not easy. Poems about love work best from a distance: It would be better, female novelist George Elliot once suggested, to have a conversation with a woman, instead of writing so many sonnets about her.

And so it took me several years to write this book.

At first, I could not write a single sonnet, and instead kept listening to our daughter: through her cries, her calls, her first word (“Uh oh”) and her second (“No!”). But the music and stories built up behind the wall of laundry and pacifiers. For her, and for other adopted children and families, and for me, I wanted to write this book.

So a manuscript started to develop. At first like a composition student writing (“Five pages! I can’t write five pages!” they complain. I too had a page number goal, when the muse was invisible. One more page?). Later, I felt like a gawky teenager coached by fabulous aunts and uncles: I found a group of brilliant poets in Portland.

And I had a publisher: Jim Natal of Conflux Press, who had published chapbooks (small arty poetry books) for poets I admire and love: ‘the Runes editors ‘Lynn Follett and Susan Terris. And I had a child, and a job, and a messy house, and a garden of overripe tomatoes.

Four years, three poetry group pals, several poetic email pals, some David St. John Workshops, a sabbatical project, and a summer of Joe taking extra childcare later, and I’m about to have a beautiful book.

The cover has a bird’s nest by Northwest Artist Nikki McClure, who makes Asian looking art from paper cut outs. And thanks to help from my friend Christine Linder, it has a red O in the title, a wink to parents who adopted from China, land of the red thread.

Readings in January
There will be three book readings in January, two of them accompanied by Bach singer, legal clerk, and beer and music blogger Lorin Wilkerson (this is a Renaissance man). We’re figuring out how to mix Bach with poetry about changing diapers on a plane.

Readings will be held at Mississippi Pizza* on January 16 (4-5—a fun kid’s event), at Chemeketa Community College on January 22 (11:30-12:20, with a children’s book drive: bring a used book!) and at The Press Club* on at 7:30 on January 26. (* indicates Lorin will play classical music. At Chemeketa, instead of Lorin, we'll have free classical pizza.) For reading reminders or to share stories, become a fan of The Long Birth on Facebook.
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In our video, the world bobs because I bowed when the monk said to.
The golden Buddha, and sleeping child eyes closed,
hands curled against her new father’s broad arms. . .
–from "Temple Blessing"