In this episode of Chewing the Gristle, poets Al Black and Tim Conroy chat with psychologist, naturalist, educator, rancher, and poet, Dr. Lucy Griffith. The love of language, playful and exciting sounds galloped to her through family raconteurs, captivating her as a child with the story's wildness. Her family's cadences, along with the South Texas sounds of vaqueros, filled her too with the love of music, voice, and song. Lucy is a poet of rural Texas landscape, surprises near the river, ranch work, attentiveness, and the extraordinary beauty in our ordinary lives.
Though a dissertation process for her advanced degree temporarily caged her creativity, her "Blackwing" pencil, sharpener, notebook, and poems leaped higher than the corral. Her poetry "fell into a place she didn't know was empty." Lucy recovered her voice to write poems that sing with meanings, intrapsychic explanations, and metaphors. They are layered with wildflowers and fox tracks. Her poems flow in free verse tuned to lungs, bike climbs, and daily chores, while others use form, slant, and internal rhyme to carry our souls to beauty.
Lucy gave her husband credit for shared interplay through the hard work of a rancher's day. She reflected, "It's fun to be with a partner who loves words as much as I do." Ranch work and writing has been her refuge to combat the helplessness felt during the pandemic. Lucy told us that her ideas for poems often come after long runs, and surprises emerge as she listens to bio-lateral music to tap unconscious wellsprings. Her line breaks reflect her willingness to startle. Lucy's early poetic influences included Whitman and Frost. Her poetic bedrock then anchored in the carefully laid words of Maxine Kumin and Stanley Kunitz. Along the way, Lucy has been deeply impacted by the courageous voices of Ada Limón and Rita Dove.
The idea for her book of poetry, We Make A Tiny Herd, sprang in part when she wrote a persona poem for an assignment. Lucy conjured the grace of the simple life of Judy Magers who locals referred to as the “burro lady.” Lucy's mentor, Larry Thomas, suggested that after reading her poem, La Reina (The Queen), she hadn't yet finished with Judy's inspiration. This poem grew into a collection of many tributaries with a guiding stream reflected in the last lines of La Reina, From you, I only ask respect: do not lay your story over mine. When Al asked her about revision, Lucy replied, "the more I learn, the more I revise."
Throughout the interview, Lucy conveyed dedication to reading poetry and learning from others. Lucy has benefited from mentors, trusted writing friends, and the poets around Comfort, Texas. She has deeply connected with her AWP mentor (listen to the interview for details), Athena Kildegaard, poet and teaching specialist at the University of Minnesota. For the emerging poet, Lucy suggested the craft books, Wingbeats: Exercises and Practice in Poetry by Scott Wiggerman (Editor), David Menschen (Editor), and A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry by Robert Hass. She warned emerging poets not to put their poems in front of people they don't respect when starting. Your "poem is tender like a wound," and advised using an early critique process emphasizing telling someone what is good about a piece. Remember, it takes time to gain "more confidence and believe in what you do."
Poems in order of recitation: La Reina, Valediction, Hung Out To Dry, “Such singing in the wild branches,” Something Hard, Voice
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