Girl Talk
Copyright © 2002
by Nancy McCleery
Backwaters P
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The two characters in these Girl Talk poems began arriving some ten years ago,
resulting in this
hybrid collection — a novel in verse as I see it, a story which develops from two
sources:
First, narrative poems comprised of conversations between two women — a visual
artist and a literary artist — women of very different temperaments, behaviors, and
ways of relating as they deal with various issues ranging from love, sex, AIDS, and
politics to other events involving friends, family, their work as artists, and
spiritual matters; and second, other poems interspersed throughout: unspoken narratives and
lyrics — poems proposing to function as underpinnings and subtexts for the discussions,
all of which
take place over a period of roughly three decades
suggesting a long association between the two women.
Contributing to the writing was my work in classical piano and bass viol as a
young woman as well as
collaborations and friendships with artists in other disciplines, particularly the late
Robert Walters, composer, in Lincoln, Nebraska, during the 1970s; visual artist Nancy
Child; musician Nancy Marshall; and actor/director Judy Hart, in the 1990s, Lincoln,
Nebraska; and visual artists, singers, and dancers in Anchorage, Alaska, 1977-1988.
In addition to teaching
and traveling as a poet in Alaska, I served as the Visual Arts Center's Poet-in-Residence
in Anchorage.
My thanks to each of my teachers in the various arts, and to those fellow
writers, friends, and acquaintances who have offered their good will, their
interest and moral support over the years. — Afterword from the author
Girl Talk has the feel of a "selected poems" or a life's work. And yet the
overriding expression is a fresh exuberance of raw energy and delight we associate
with new writers. McCleery may well be an old hand, whose insights are learned and
earned, but every poem sings with pure astonishment. — Greg Kuzma
Thank you so much for the brilliant poems. What an inspired idea! — Carolyn Kizer
I am reminded of the two faces of Janus, looking back toward girlhood and forward toward
the woman whole and complete, teetering at the pinnacle of female awareness. The "girl"
voice in this book redeems silence for us all. — CarolAnn Russell
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