CChristy White

In 2012 Phoenix poet CChristy White launched the monthly Poetry Missive Newsletter. Now published cooperatively through the Arizona State Poetry Society (ASPS), it’s a clearinghouse for information on readings, contests, workshops and events. “While poetry is my creative passion, building community has turned out to be just as important.” She discovered a divide among poets: university, community and slam/performance artists rarely interacted, simply because they were unaware of one another. “I wanted a way to connect the various poetry communities in Arizona. I feel strongly that if we know about each other as poets, we won’t feel so isolated.”

CChristy began working with ASPS in the early 1990s. With a background in accounting, she originally volunteered as treasurer. Over the years she’s held a range of positions, from contest chair to president.“Currently I’m co-president with three others, and youth contest chair and annual contest chair as well.” In September the organization turns 60 years old. Its October 24th conference in Mesa will focus on the theme, “Past, Present and Future of Poetry in Arizona.” This will include open readings, workshops, lectures and other events.

When it comes to her own work, CChristy is both poet and editor. She has self-published seven chapbooks, and her work is included in many journals and anthologies. Through editing she’s learned to walk the line between artistic vision and methodical organization.“If the poet’s mind is a room full of books with scattered poems littering any surface available, the editor’s mind is an orderly room looking for theme and structure.” Her objective is to master the balance between these mindsets.

CChristy has been composing poems for as long as she can remember. “I was making up tiny three- or four-line poems before I could write. I was fascinated with nature and its beauty and peace. I was lucky enough to have a mother (she was a poet, too) who encouraged me. She would write the poems in her journal, which the family still has. As soon as I learned to write, I was writing stories and poems, with illustrations! The Kentucky State Poetry Society published one of my poems in its Junior Pegasus Anthology when I was twelve (60 years ago!).”

CChristy is always ready to capture a poetic idea. “I keep a small journal with me all the time so I can write bursts of inspiration, or record things I have heard/seen/felt as quick notes to return to for inspiration. I primarily write in a poetry journal, but I also have a dream journal and a late-night poem journal by my bed.” For her, “almost everything is fodder for writing,” but she does revisit certain recurring motifs.“Themes that weave through my work come often from nature, my companion animals, family, relationships, and what I’m working out in nighttime dreams or daytime queries as I explore myself and where I fit in.”

Sharing her writing through workshops can be helpful in “chiseling out the poem within the poem.” Poems take a certain amount of vision, followed by revision, before they are complete. “I find that my poems open with one theme, then hunt for the through-line, which may not be fully formed until I do the work of editing.” She adds, “I also go to poetry readings whenever I can because listening to other poets is a time of regeneration.”

When discussing the poem “Clarity,” CChristy notes, “The poem has to do with a friend’s near-death experience and how our time is so short compared with the slow, long life of Earth. I’ve written before of being on alert for the beauty around me after various friends have told me their experiences or I learn of their passing. Everything beautiful comes into sharp focus.” About “Afternoon Respite,” she says, “I wanted most to capture the essence of peace and presence, yet being aware of passing time.” Although the poems are on different topics, she explains, “Both are defined in some way by time, and maybe that’s what these two, as well as other poems, have in common.”

CChristy reaffirms the importance of both poetry and community. “I interpret my life, my thoughts, my soul through poetry. Writing poetry has brought me peace, which is difficult to quantify. But, after all is said and done (after I’ve been buried under a magnolia tree?), I hope it is said that I brought poets together.”

To join ASPS, visit azpoetry.net.

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Afternoon Respite

I step into the courtyard,

pause at the small bridge.

Three waterfalls splash

from stone monument.

Mottled and gold koi float

fat and languid, circle

like wild pinto ponies,

tails and fins undulate.

In cool pond’s shallows

minnows flutter from gaping

mouths’ hungry reach.

Orange dragonfly hangs

from yellow-flowered stalks

swaying above giant aloes.

Doves call in voices

soft as gray-blue feathers,

speak of nests and mates,

of coming scorch-hot days.

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Clarity

Do you lift your eyes to the morning sky,

watch the rumpled mantle of clouds

vie with the absolute cerulean clarity?

Do you stop to carefully listen

to an unusual, musical bird call,

its notes trilling an original song?

Coming within sight of a friend’s near death

do you find yourself wanting to get down

on your protesting knees to smell the wet

darkened earth with its rich livingness?

This rare gem

of Earth,

our lives.