Spouse, from the Latin past participle of spondēre, to promise, betroth: and betrothal, from Middle English, trouthe, or truth. Promise and truth—two things that are held in tension between long-married couples. This poem touches on the paradox of being a spouse toward the end of life, the mix of promise and truth, love and irony, tragedy and comedy, and how they co-exist, not exactly peacefully, but held in tension, without each eliminating the other.
Joan Houlihan on "Spousal" |
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"Language and Survival: A Q&A with Poet Joan Naviyuk Kane"
"I came to writing because I loved reading. It’s very simple. And I was drawn to poems in particular from my very early childhood because one thing that.…is emphasized in my family and in [our family] culture is the hour of the song—of being able to make something to express something about the human condition for other people to hear.…as part of human relation."
via THE BEACON |
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What Sparks Poetry: Luisa A. Igloria on "Caulbearer"
"It is believed that the child, this caulbearer, is marked with a kind of otherworldly protection; some say, even second sight—because for no matter how short a time, it knew what it’s like to inhabit a space in its transit from one world to another. For me, what we bring into poems as well as the poem itself lives in this same kind of liminal territory. It’s as if in the poem we are allowed a veiled glimpse of visions and insights from feeling and remembrance, mingled with the facts of our real and imagined lives and circumstances." |
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