Welcome Guest Author - Poet Barri Bryan

Barri Bryan 

      STEPH:    How long have you been writing poetry?

BARRI: I began putting rhymes together when I was in the second grade. I have always loved poetry. When I was not yet three-years-old, my little brother had a baby powder can with nursery rhymes on it. My mother read them to me over and over again. I never tired of hearing them. 

STEPH: Are there any distinct themes to your poetry?

BARRI: Most of the time yes, occasionally, no. The theme of Chapter and Verse is love. Brush Country was inspired by the sights and scenes of the Brush Country of South Central Texas. Four Part Harmony has four separate and distinct themes within one book. What Will Suffice is an eclectic collection of many themes.

STEPH:     What forms/types of poetry do you prefer to write?

My style of writing does not lends itself to free verse. I write mostly in couplets or quatrains.  I write poetry as some individuals play the piano, by ear. The contents of the poem dictates the form, or forms. I often mix forms in a poem.  Occasionally I attempt an English sonnet. I love haikus, but I seldom attempt writing one. On the surface they seem simple, but they are extremely difficult. I have never attempted the villianelle form, but I love its strength and intensity. I think Sylvia Plath uses this form superbly. So does Elizabeth Bishop.

STEPH:    Who is your favorite poet?

BARRI: That's like asking who my favorite child is. I love Christina Rossetti's poetry. I delight in reading John Donne. I like Wallace Stevens and Algernon Charles Swinburne. I enjoy Emily Dickenson, Coventry Patmore, and Ted Hughes…

STEPH: What is your favorite poem?

BARRI: That, once more, is a difficult question to answer. If I absolutely had to select one poem, I would choose John Wilmot's Love and Life. He captures in three short verses the inability to change the past, the brevity of the moment, and the uncertainty of all tomorrows.

STEPH: Barri, can you share one of your poems with us?

BARRI: This poem is from my latest poetry book titled Four Part Harmony. It's from section two titled, Highway 35 South.

SCENERY AND SEASONS

Between McHarvey’s Auction Barn

And the cut-off to New Algiers

Lies a stretch of fallow farmland

That hasn’t been planted in years.

 In summer a blazing, blistering sun

Turns its crop of weeds to brown.

Once a strike of August lightening

Set a fire that burned to the edge of town.

In autumn it’s a tangled maze

Of undergrowth and stubble.

As now-and-then a brave green sprout

Rises from the decaying rubble.

In winter frost cuts to the ground

Every green and growing thing,

Leaving death and desolation,

Until one day in early spring

New life nudges through the sod

And changes the dismal scene

From gray and bleak and dreary

To a hopeful new-born green.

Oh the wonder, oh, the magic

As slowly from death and confusion

Wild flowers bloom and blossom

In grand and glorious profusion.

Oh beauty, for all your brevity

I see in your short-lived perfection

How brief is life, how sure is death

How splendid the hope of resurrection.

This poem is from Brush Country.

TEXAS TOWN

In the east a blazing ball of fire

Climbs ever steadily higher and higher.

Overhead, a jet plane soaring high

Cuts a vapor incision across the sky.

Up and down the awakening street

Dance limpid waves of shimmering heat.

Stench of garbage, smell of gas    

Mix with the scent of fresh-cut grass. 

The humid air is sweltering.

Catholic Church bells begin to ring

Above the din of an auto horn;

Small Town Texas Sunday morn.

Love and Life

By John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

All my past life is mine no more,

The flying hours are gone,

Like transitory dreams giv'n o'er,

Whose images are kept in store

By memory alone.

The time that is to come is not;

How can it then be mine?

The present moment's all my lot;

And that, as fast as it is got,

Phyllis, is only thine.

Then talk not of inconstancy,

False hearts, and broken vows;

If I, by miracle, can be

This live-long minute true to thee,

'Tis all that Heav'n allows.

FIND BARRI AT: 

You can find a link to buy Four Part Harmony at my website

http://barribryan.com/

 or go to  http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=61&products_id=971

You can find a link to buy Brush Country at my website

http://barribryan.com/

Or go to

http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=61&products_id=130

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Blog

http://barribryan.com/blog/