Poetry as a Cistern for Love and Loss

Key Takeaways

Poet Gabrielle Calvocoressi discusses her collection "The New Economy," a National Book Award finalist.
Calvocoressi's work redefines economy through kindness, love, community, and interdependence.
Her creative process involves physical movement and draws inspiration from musical forms and deep listening.
The poems candidly address difficult subjects like suicide and grief, balancing candor with gratitude for life.
Calvocoressi explores personal history, including her mother's death, and the triumph of survival.

The book's title, "The New Economy," originates from a poem in Calvocoressi's previous collection.
It redefines "economy" to encompass the value of kindness, love, and generative hunger.
Themes include community, interdependence, and personal agency in facing external forces.

Calvocoressi created "the cistern" form, inspired by Pauline Oliveros's "Deep Listening Project."
Oliveros conducted musicians in the Dan Harpool cistern, creating significant recordings.
The guest sees herself as the most recent "top of the cistern" for her family and American experiences, part of a collective voice.

The poem "Hammond B3 Organ Cistern" touches on themes of suicidal thoughts and gratitude for choosing to live.
Calvocoressi discusses balancing candor about difficult subjects like death and suicide with expressions of good fortune.
She is actively learning to integrate this balance in her life and writing, using punctuation for deliberate pauses.

Calvocoressi is engaged in an ongoing process of writing about her mother's death by suicide.
She notes that she is now older than her mother was at the time of her death.
Her work reflects on her mother's struggles, particularly during the Reagan era.

The "Miss You" poems were initiated during COVID-19 following the loss of friends.
These poems explore the phrase "miss you" and the craft of poetry, aiming to evoke a sense of presence with lost loved ones.
They incorporate specific scenes and details of shared activities and meals.