NO LIFE BUT THIS: A Novel of Emily Warren Roebling is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.


It is biographical fiction based on the life of Emily Warren Roebling considered to be the first female field engineer and highly instrumental in the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.


http://atbosh.com/authors/diane-vogel-ferri/

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Hawking Liquid Rubies

When I got my box of "Liquid Rubies" , I promised myself that I would not be overly sensitive to the fact that many people I know would completely ignore my sense of accomplishment, many would never understand the work that went into it, many would never bother to read one poem. I know this all to be true because I have another book and experienced all this before. But I'm still struggling. I want to share it with people I'm close to because it's a part of me.
Anne Lamott says," Even if only the people in your writing group read your memoirs or stories or novel, even if you only wrote your story so that one day your children would know what life was like when you were a child and you knew the name of every dog in town - still, to have written your version is an honorable thing to have done. Against all odds, you have put it down on paper so it won't be lost. And who knows? Maybe what you've written will help others, will be a small part of the solution. You don't even have to know how or in what way, but if you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find, and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse. Lighthouses don't go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining."
I need to absorb that message even though I want to say - that's easy for you to say, Anne Lamott, you're a famous writer!
I also understand that most people are afraid of poetry because they think they're not going to get it or don't know anything about it. Many of my poems are small stories or slices of life. Not so hard to comprehend. My little book doesn't look like much, but it represents hundreds of hours of writing and revising, of organizing a cohesive grouping of poems, of researching publishers and mailing out varying collections to suit their needs - and then, finally, after years of learning the craft, being mentored by other poets, years of effort and hope - someone says YES - I love your poetry collection! I will publish it!
Gertrude Stein said, "Everyone who writes is interested in living inside themselves in order to tell what is inside themselves." So I will continue to write, I'm sure, no matter who reads it - or not - and in time I will surrender to that which I do not understand - just as I have so many times on this life journey.

8 comments:

christopher said...

How It Is

The poem adrift on the winds
anonymous, self sufficient,
gazes downward in passing
looking for the author
who will care enough
to give it a place
to land for now.

After, it will fly
free again.

Moohaa said...

As we've discussed before it's putting a naked, almost wounded, piece of ourselves out there and hoping there is someone who is affected by it's appearance in the world. I love your poems. Even the order you put them in shows thought and planning. Enjoy your accomplishment sister!

Amy said...

Who hasn't acknowledged this huge accomplishment???? Do I need to find them and read them the riot act?? I will, you know. And...I'd like to ask you for three more copies, please. I'll pay you, of course. I'd like to give one to my mom, my sister and a good friend. Can you bring them to our meeting tonight?

Anonymous said...

Diane it's kind of weird that you quoted Ann Lamott, because very recently, so did Angela, do you know her, she's an author too. Here's her post http://acinnamonnest.blogspot.com/2009/02/bodylicious.html, sorry I don't know how to link on comments. Anyway, I would love to buy your book. I love your poetry and look forward to reading more. I have the perfect person I can share it with.

Now for my next phase of this comment. I was given an award and am handing it down to the people I love to read about and you're one of them. Just click on my name and you will be sent to the post with the award.

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

I struggle all the time with how difficult it is to find an audience. In the end, we have to write for ourselves, no matter how the world receives it.

And I for one am looking forward to reading your poems.

Kathie Brown said...

Congrats on getting your book published! Hang in there!

Kathie Brown said...

P.S. I like what Christopher said!

Anonymous said...

hi
forgive please that im unfamiliar
w/ your book

i just want to send a compliment
on its title

the words, 'liquid rubies'
(or possibly 'liquid ruybys')
popped into my head the other
day

i thought it was such cool imagery
and was quite pleased w/ myself

i googled the words and alas ...
youre cooler than i

oh well ... i compliment your creativity and lament (just a tad) my non-uniqueness