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"Here to Be Remade" by Lavina Blossom

  • "Here to Be Remade" by Lavina Blossom

Each of the 32 poems in Here to Be Remade owes its vocabulary to a separate book of poems taken from the writer's bookshelf--usually the first and last lines in that collection. The author set herself the challenge of creating a coherent poem from these word sets without borrowing lines or phrases from the collection from which the words were taken. The poems are condensed and diverse, reflecting the mind of a poet as collage artist. Paintings, also created by the author, are interspersed among the poems.

In Lavina Blossom’s playful and meditative Here To Be Remade, “grass unzips itself” to reveal how “matter muscles / its safe space”. Each poem bears Blossom’s distinctive wit and charm. Adding color and texture and depth are Blossom’s own vivid acrylic and mixed media artworks interspersed between the poems. In a process statement, Blossom describes how the poems were crafted by selecting words “from the first and last lines of poems” taken from individual poetry collections she owns. Paradoxically, applying these constraints afforded Blossom "a wide clean view to a deeper wilder knowing.”
—Cati Porter, author of Novel (Bamboo Dart Press)
Lavina Blossom is a poet and artist and this fine illustrated collection represents both facets of her skill.  In a self-imposed rule for her poetry, she restricts her vocabulary, spinning gold out of an almost random choice of the words of other poets.  Rearranging them to achieve “an alphabet written on the wind.”  Meanwhile, a fly, magnified in all its iridescent splendor alights between the poems Light and Breath and Utter Happening, followed by Pears in a Red Bowl, a concerto of red, yellow and green, then white-haloed Poppies limned against a sea of black. As if listening to a conversation held in a faraway room, Lavina Blossom resurrects and refines unrealized connections we hold in common.  She gives us “…a fire in a box that crackles.” 
—Ruth Bavetta, author of What's Left Over (FutureCycle Press)


Immensities poem by Lavina Blossom
read by the author
Paintings by Lavina Blossom
Directed and Edited by Dennis Callaci

Lavina Blossom


Lavina Blossom grew up in rural Michigan and now lives in Southern California where she is growing a native California garden of drought-tolerant plants that support local birds and insects, as well as many spiders, lizards, and an occasional field mouse. She has written articles on the writing process for the Inlandia Institute and was a poetry editor for Inlandia's online journal. Her poems have appeared in various publications, including The Paris Review, Poemeleon, Common Ground Review, Gyroscope Review, and Book of Matches. Her flash fiction has appeared in 10 by 10 Flash, Every Day Fiction, and Okay Donkey.

Instagram: @lavinablossom

Facebook: @lavina.blossom

Website: www.dailypaintworks.com

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Tags: poetry, paintings, colorful, collage, reuse, borrowed, landscapes