POET BROOKE MATSON | Karen Mobley
Brooke Matson
Artist Trust GAP Grant Recipient
ODE TO AN ORCA, ODE TO THE DEEP
The dorsal fin tears the sun along the water and arcs toward us.
A calf, our guide says.
The ocean rolls beneath us like a sheet on a wind, lifting our kayaks.
I have rowed between these islands to escape my grief. Like a child, I wanted to discover my own island— remote and unscarred.
I have dreams— ancient, childhood dreams of dark water, terrified of what shapes moved below me, unseen.
It takes a breath
not a hundred feet from us, rolls onto its belly, then plunges under, smacking its black tail before vanishing into the deep.
Take me under.
KAREN MOBLEY
I don’ t want to be this animal anymore— bound by loss and other laws. Take me under.
I smack my paddle on the water, mimicking its tail, and watch the surface absorb the blow.
LEARN MORE ABOUT BROOKE MATSON & SPARK CENTRAL AT:
WWW. SPARKWESTCENTRAL. ORG WWW. BROOKEMATSON. COM
Brooke Matson is one of the most visible faces in Spokane poetry today. If you visit Spokane’ s Spark Central at 1214 W Summit Pkwy, Spokane, you most likely see her where she serves as Executive Director. She is a recent Artist Trust GAP Grant recipient and will also participate in a residency at Centrum as a part of her recognition by Artist Trust. Her poems have been published, most recently in CALYX. Her book, The Moons, was published by Blue Begonia Press. She is working on a new manuscript called Impossible Things. She says,“ Impossible Things is an interrogation of physical matter through poetry. Science and physics are obsessions right now.”
She has been actively writing poetry since high school and bringing work to our community through readings and events. About her beginnings, Brooke said,“ I started writing poetry and stories when I was a young child. One of my first book purchases in elementary school was a rhyming dictionary, in fact, which I used to write a poem about a deer that didn’ t listen to its mother and ended up getting eaten by a lion! In high school, I had an English teacher who was very, very interested in poetry and taught me to love the Zen it could invoke— an experience of being in the moment. My senior year of high school was the beginning of a steady stream of poetry.”
At Spark Central, Brooke works to engage others in writing and reading. When she was asked about how to get started with poetry, Brooke said,“ Bruce Holbert once described poetry as jumping into a river, and I think that’ s not far from the truth. A good poem is a real visceral experience— it moves you, and your brain reacts chemically to the words and their sound. Poetry was meant to be heard; hearing it brings us closer to the physical experience. To engage with poetry, I like to read it aloud to myself— in fact, when I’ ve had an upsetting day, I pace and read poetry from a favorite poet aloud. I’ m sure I look like a crazy person, but the music and meaning of it calms me down.”
“ When I want students to engage with poetry, we read it aloud theatrically and then explore connotations and reactions until we come to a common understanding of the poem. Nothing burns me up inside like a poetry lesson where poems are treated like math formulas with only one real solution. Poems are mystical— even holy, I think— and every person’ s experience of a poem is slightly unique thanks to individual brain architecture and memory; teachers should always take that into account. Some poems hit like a punch. Some make us tear up. Some are downright
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