The Author writes about our collective experiences in this new century – the covid virus (“Plague Year Poetry”), the experience of nature, the old conditions for working women and the evolving fairness (“Working Woman Poetry”), and the ever-present human relationships.
I write about our collective experiences in this new century – the covid virus (“Plague Year Poetry”), the experience of nature, and the conditions for working women 1970’s-90’s (“Working Woman Poetry”). My new book “Between My City and My Hudson River Valley Collected Poems 2019 – 2022” revisits the affects of covid, discusses the ever-present human relationships and takes trump on a journey.
By education and experience, I’m an Engineer, although my degree is in Physics and Mathematics. Even though most established companies were not hiring women in 1976, I got into the computer/ I.T. field after graduating from college, then, because the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was something of a ‘start-up’ and they needed everyone with skills. For the last 44 years, I have worked every day (all day, all night, sigh) designing financial industry databases.
I have also been writing poetry since I learned what a poem was (about 60 years ago) and have just begun to publish them. During boring corporate meetings, coffee breaks, lunchtime and downtime, I wrote poetry. My first poem, ‘Deskbound’ was published in Oberon Magazine in 2019. My first chapbook, “Plague Year Poetry,” is available on Amazon.com My second chapbook, Working Woman Poetry, can be ordered directly from the publisher, finishinglinepress.com, or from Amazon.com. Both chapbooks were published in 2020.
My first full collection of poetry, 228 pages, is titled “Between My City and My Hudson River Valley Collected Poems 2019 – 2022”. It has been published this month. Please order this book and/or my chapbooks below.
“…difficult / challenging…” for whom ? There are dense poems which are very famous: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” And “Dante’s Inferno” come to mind. An ice cream truck vendor once quoted Dante to me. There is more to the Times quote (They go on to discuss Alice Notley’s poetry), and it may apply more to very long poems, with dense language and references to classical literature which you may not have read, but, essentially, I am very much opposed to this statement (of philosophy). I believe that a good poem should be understandable and accessible to all. If you are writing for a tiny audience (e.g. university professors specializing in 17th century English literature) then ok, you can produce a poem which is difficult to read. But if you are writing poems for everyone who ever worked in an office and anyone who breathed the spring air, the poem should be crystal clear.
I worked in Financial Services. IT from the time that IT departments were founded. Many of my experiences are reflected here.
My readers are only too aware of the fact that Covid-19 struck New York City particularly hard. The ambulances ran all night. This chapbook reflects our collective experience and our hope for the future.
This full length poetry book has three distinct parts. Part 1 reflects the shared but isolated experiences of New Yorkers during the Covid crisis. Part 2 are poems written in the years 2019 thru 2022. Part 3 is a poem/play “trump Crosses the River Styx.” It describes a journey trump will take in the afterlife, first described by Dante Alighieri.
When you are deskbound
Poetry is the only possibility
You can start a novel
Or a non-fiction
On your Corporate edition of WORD
But weeks of DELIVERABLES
(Now ! Now ! Finish it !!)
Will wear you down
And remove your focus.
A poem is a burst
A starlight
A breakthrough
So clear, so happy,
So breathtaking.
Unbound.
© Claire L. Frankel 2019
Forty years in an office
Designing data
For indifferent traders.
I may as well drink.
All my money spent on art
And life in Manhattan.
(Consider Manhattans.)
I may as well drink.
One week by the sea, then
Back to the canyons.
The Borough is boiling.
I may as well drink.
Oh flowers, oh seaside, Oh gunquit
Gone in a blink.
I may as well drink.
© Claire L. Frankel 2018
When you are deskbound
Poetry is the only possibility
You can start a novel
Or a non-fiction
On your Corporate edition of WORD
But weeks of DELIVERABLES
(Now ! Now ! Finish it !!)
Will wear you down
And remove your focus.
A poem is a burst
A starlight
A breakthrough
So clear, so happy,
So breathtaking.
Unbound.
© Claire L. Frankel 2019
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Copyright © 2023 Claire L Frankel
