Artist Statement
People say my poems are brave but I see them as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings (Whitman). In “flood mode,” a sort of alchemy happens somewhere between pen and page. Choices are offered up that weren’t necessarily present in the poem’s origin story, choices that—if accepted and I’m lucky—provide a unique therapeutic experience: carving new neural pathways and perspectives, facilitating understanding, empathy, and healing.
About the “I”: Surely, first person point-of-view is almost always strongest but can also prove slippery, tricking some into thinking poetry is nonfiction when we poets lie shamelessly in the service of our poems all the time. I extrapolated the history of a nuclear power plant in Two Faint Lines in the Violet to tell some of my most personal tales. In The Whispering Wall I adopted various personas as muses to discover what the self may have been able to intuit but not yet articulate.
Women surreal artists were particularly helpful: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Leonor Fini. Inspired by the courage and originality they exhibited in their lives and works, I stretched my comfort zone to experiment with syntax, imagery, and point-of-view. To see how much I could privilege musicality without muddying meaning. To write a pure lyric without worrying it might leave a few things unsaid.
Mainly, I try to stay curious, attentive, playful, vulnerable. Every poem calls for something different. I attempt to embrace failing as just another path to self-discovery. I have a long way to go as an artist, but poem by poem, I evolve.
Thank you for reading me and for the pleasure of your imagined company on this journey. I hope you enjoy the trip at least half as much as I do.
Updated: March 2, 2023
Photo © Dennis Kiernan, 2013
Bio
Lissa Kiernan is the founding director of The Poetry Barn, a pollinator habitat for poetry in the Catskills. Her second collection of poetry, The Whispering Wall, won Homebound Publications' Poetry Prize and was a semi-finalist for the Dorset Prize. Her first book of prose, Glass Needles & Goose Quills, won the Nautilus Gold for lyric prose and took first place in the Independent Book Awards' cross-genre category. Two Faint Lines in the Violet, Lissa's first poetry collection, was a finalist for both the Foreword Indies and Julie Suk awards. She enjoys collaborating with other artists, forest-bathing, art-journaling, and music. She lives near the Ashokan Reservoir's spillway with her husband, Chris, and a fluctuating number of felines.
