Already a fan, I met Luci Shaw once, at an open mic evening at the Glen in Santa Fe. She sought me out and told me that she “really liked” my poetry. This meant so much to me, especially since it followed a poetry workshop where the poet who was leading had made a point of telling me that I was “an encouraging mother-figure” to the poets in the workshop. He liked the comments I made. This was feedback that I have gotten in various contexts over the course of my life. I am the mother of six creative people. However, this was a week I had taken to try and cultivate my own work. I can’t tell the whole story here, but Luci Shaw, who knew nothing of the experience I was having in my workshop, lifted my crestfallen head that evening.
Beautiful poem. Beautiful tribute. My only encounter with Luci was over email when I asked her if I could print off poems from her website for a poetry packet I was making my creative writing students. The answer she wrote back was so full of kindness and vitality that it made me think, "Wow, I want to be like that in my nineties." She sent a poem she had just written "hot off the typewriter," and it made me feel included in her circle of friends and writers. When I heard about her heaven going, I got Breath from the Bones off my shelf and started looking through it again, gleaning from her wisdom.
Already a fan, I met Luci Shaw once, at an open mic evening at the Glen in Santa Fe. She sought me out and told me that she “really liked” my poetry. This meant so much to me, especially since it followed a poetry workshop where the poet who was leading had made a point of telling me that I was “an encouraging mother-figure” to the poets in the workshop. He liked the comments I made. This was feedback that I have gotten in various contexts over the course of my life. I am the mother of six creative people. However, this was a week I had taken to try and cultivate my own work. I can’t tell the whole story here, but Luci Shaw, who knew nothing of the experience I was having in my workshop, lifted my crestfallen head that evening.
I feel this anecdote DEEPLY!! I’m so glad Luci saw your writing and heard your heart.
Committed to the Anecdote
—an epitaph for Luci
As if, by extreme adherence
To the radiant stuff of this
Our denotative life, she might
Observe her words exceeding what
It was that first attracted her
Keen, trusting curiosity
To the modest scene, upon which
Her every faculty focused
A never-to-be-quenched desire.
I love it. (Also hi Scott!)
Hi, Dawn. Lovely tribute to a lovely mentor.
Thank you. Lucy was a mentor that I never met. Through her poetry she became a treasured friend. My own poetry has been enriched by her voice.
Beautiful poem. Beautiful tribute. My only encounter with Luci was over email when I asked her if I could print off poems from her website for a poetry packet I was making my creative writing students. The answer she wrote back was so full of kindness and vitality that it made me think, "Wow, I want to be like that in my nineties." She sent a poem she had just written "hot off the typewriter," and it made me feel included in her circle of friends and writers. When I heard about her heaven going, I got Breath from the Bones off my shelf and started looking through it again, gleaning from her wisdom.
Beautiful, Dawn! What a treasure.
What a tribute!
What a legacy!
Thank you, Dawn—how I smiled and marveled throughout this tribute.
Thanks for the lovely reflection and the memorable poem "Sounds Like Lace".
Thanks too for the poem in the responses by Scott Cairns.
I was also at that Hutchmoot. If I’m remembering correctly, I believe she had recently went skydiving for the first time?
I think you’re right!
Mmmm beautiful woman, memories and words….
“the water
swaying like a woman
who dances to the memory
of a song she used to know.”
Lovely tribute.
And this line: "Patience and grit and intense attention to the realities of living and creating"