Joanne the Poet - The Poetry of Joanne M. Clarkson

Being Barbara, A Poem that Had to be Written

When we were visiting Victoria BC last year, we went into Murchie’s Tea Shop which we always visit when we take the ferry to Canada. Besides buying tea to bring home, we had a fresh brewed cup and pastry. Then I went downstairs to the washroom. As I looking down at my hands as I washed them, the woman next to be exclaimed, “Barbara!” I knew immediately she had mistaken me for someone very dear to her. When I looked up and she saw I was not her Barbara, her expression was so shattered. I knew this moment was a poem. My poem, “Being Barbara in the Women’s Washroom,” is now in the Fall 2020 online Crone issue of Gyroscope, “fine poetry to turn your world around.” Go to www.gyroscopereview.com where you can download the free PDF version. My poem is in the second section, pg. 41.

Ekphrastic Event Online

Each year in August our Northwind Art Gallery invites poets to come in, select a painting and write a poem about it. Previously the gallery then hosted a evening of Ekphrastic readings. This year, however, due to the pandemic, poets were asked to peruse the paintings on the gallery’s website to chose one to write about. We could also visit during weekend open hours to see the work in person. The poems were then posted on the website next to the art they addressed. This is kind of cool since now anyone anywhere can see both painting and poetry! I chose Wanda Mawhinney’s beautiful “The Leafless Trees” as my inspiration for a poem of the same name. You can view the painting and read my work by going to www.northwindarts.org. Click on Literary Arts at the top of the page, then Northwind Reading Series. Under that you will find a button called Ekphrasitic Poetry for Autumn. After you click on this, scroll down through the beautiful art to find mine and Wanda’s leafless trees.

Beach Poem in Westchester Review Fall Issue

My poem, “Wish Beach,” is online in the Fall 2020 issue of the Westchester Review. To read it, go to www.westchesterreview.com and scroll down to the Poetry section and click on my name. There really are an unusually large number of ringed rocks on Cape George beach where we live in Port Townsend. I make wishes every time I walk my beloved shoreline. I great way to pray.

Poem in September’s American Journal of Nursing.

This poem is about a situation I encountered several times as a Hospice RN. A relative of the dying person has dementia and can’t remember being told the loved one is nearing the end. So each time the message is repeated, the confused soul suffers over and over again. “I Promise Not to Tell Her He is Dying” is about the request from a cancer patient that I not tell his confused wife about the severity of his illness. He was such a brave and loving man. This poem is in the ‘Art of Nursing’ section of AJN, Volume 120, September 2020. You can read it by going to the AJN website and clicking on this section. I loved my nursing so very much and always felt so honored to be part of the love shared during the most challenging times.

Honorable Mention in Paterson Literary Review

My poem, “Nun Gowns” was awarded an honorable mention in this year’s Paterson Literary Review awards. It appeared in the annual collection which is edited by Maria Mazziotti Gillan. Maria has been a heroine of mine for many years for her brave writing and also for her dedication to honoring poetry by all ages, in all situations, from all cultures. This is a ‘true’ poem from my childhood. My mother was a widow who taught at the Catholic school I attended. Once during the winter we all got terribly sick. The nuns sewed us flannel nightgowns, an act I honored in this poem.

Excerpt from Poem, August 2020 Calendar

My piece about the goddess Mokosh is featured for August in the We’Moon wall calendar along with this stone art. So excellent since she is represented by stones. Most of you know my maiden name was Mokosh. My dad’s family is Czech.

Poem in HEAL Journal

My poem, “The Wound Nurse,” is online now in the Spring 2020 issue of HEAL: Humanism Evolving through Arts and Literature. It will also appear in the print edition which will come out in 2021. This is a poetic description of how, as a Home Health RN, I treated an elderly patient with severe abrasions on her arms from falling and crawling. It is also a meditation of sorts about our Skin and the essential nature of Touch.

Poem Set to Music

My poem “The Owl Hour” appeared this month in Rockvale Review Issue 6. This beautiful online journal pairs each poem with a piece of art. Four of the poems, including mine, were chosen by flutist and composer Michael Morton, to be interpreted in an original composition. The poignant, breathy flute seems perfect to go with this poem that is driven primarily by a memory of sound.

My poem is one of my earliest memories of my father who passed away when I was 10. A WWII veteran, he had started his own construction company and worked passionately so he wasn’t home much and I have a very few memories of intimate moments with him. But the Owl Hour is one of them. A fainting hooting at dusk always reminds me of him.

Shelley Thomas provided the ‘velvet’ as she describes it, art to go with my poem. I love that both artist and musician describe how the poem called their artistic expressions. I find it particularly thrilling when the Arts come together to create a wider and deeper moment.

Thank you so much to editor Sandy Coomer for producing this wonderful journal. You can read, see and hear my poem and the other wonderful work by going to www.rockdalereview.com. Click on Issues, then Issue 6. Scroll down and click on the artwork and the poem appears.