‘Potato Eaters’ Is Food For Thought

By Nancy K. Crevier

The cover of Potato Eaters speaks volumes about the words written within it. Eight youngsters are caught mid-action on and about a backyard swing set, the clothing evoking the mid-1950s, the children’s facial expressions suggesting myriad changes about to happen. It is a family photograph of the author’s mother’s family and friends.

Potato Eaters, a collection of poetry written by former Newtown resident Amy Nawrocki, will be published by Finishing Line Press this November. The 21-page manuscript was the  2007 finalist of the Codhill Poetry Chapbook Prize from Codhill and is a sampling of years of writing that have earned her recognition and awards from numerous publications around the country.

Ms Nawrocki grew up in Sandy Hook and is a 1991 graduate of Newtown High School. She received her bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and a master’s of fine arts in poetry from the University of Arkansas. She is currently an instructor of English and creative writing at the University of Bridgeport.

“The first poem I actually remember shaping was about my mom’s cancer diagnosis, when I was in high school,” said Ms Nawrocki. “Then I didn’t write a whole lot more until my senior year when I did some fiction writing and some play writing. It was really a freshman English class in college that helped me focus on poetry, and I’ve been writing since then,” she said.

She grew to love the modern poets and was particularly influenced by the works of e.e. cummings. “I think it was that unstructured style, or we might say today ‘free style,’ that appealed to me. Later, I read a lot of Wallace Stevens, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson and grew to appreciate those great poets,” said Ms Nawrocki. Today, it is the poetry of Linda Gregg or Elizabeth Bishop that inspires her. “I read a lot of poetry and fiction journals, both online and hard copy, and I often will pick up a collection by a new poet,” she said.

It is her mother, however, who died when the author was 16 years old, as well as her father who raised the family, that directly and indirectly influenced the poems that make up Potato Eaters, she said.

“My mother was certainly instrumental in raising us when I was younger, of course, so she does factor into my poetry somewhat,” Ms Nawrocki said. “But my father and siblings also affect my writing, and I think one of my favorite poems in the chapbook, ‘In The Backyard,’ is really an overview of my childhood. There is a line about [my mother] watching us play, ‘a ghostly green light from the kitchen,’ that is a reflection of her still being with us, even after she had died,” said Ms Nawrocki.

The essence of her mother swirls through several other of the poems that make up Potato Eaters, as well. “What I need is the rocking/ of a mother’s voice” read lines from “Every Vine’s Wall.” Her mother’s fight with cancer is outlined in metaphors in “Van Gogh’s Ear,” and in “Tissue” the reader feels the writer’s loss, “Pirating treasure-kisses/left on the counter.” It is from a line in the poem “Van Gogh’s Ear,” referring to a painting by Vincent Van Gogh of that name, that the title of the book is taken.

The poems in the chapbook are also a record of growing up, and of finding out who you are growing up, said Ms Nawrocki. “I selected the poems for this manuscript because they seemed to go together in the realm of family and growing up, daily situations, and coming to terms with identity,” she added.

The poetry in Potato Eaters and much of her other poetry is infused with imagery: “Bails of hay/ line up like troubadours…,” “…our car teeters on the canyon edge/ overlooking our girlhoods…,” “Buckets in the foyer/ harvest the rainstorm that descends from the ceiling.” It is imagery, the ability to paint a picture in the mind of another, that is her strong suit when writing poetry, Ms Nawrocki said, and her willingness to pull from her personal life and the life around her.

But not all of her poetry is personal, said Ms Nawrocki. “Very often I write imagistic poems capturing a time or place, even things I don’t know myself, which can be very difficult. I like to use sensory experiences and give that to the reader,” she said. “I try to find new ways of looking at things that might be considered ordinary, or a fresh way of saying something,” she said. It is often later, after she has seen, done, or read something, that the details make connections that turn to poetry, said Ms Nawrocki. Often she finds that a poem has taken her in a direction other than where she thought it was going.

“Every poem is different in how it takes off,” she said. “Certainly I try to look for details in everyday things, but it is not necessarily in the forefront all of the time. Whatever we do will factor into our writing, but writers will choose to what extent they care to share a personal experience with readers,” she explained.

There is no one formula for writing for this poet, she said. “Sometimes it is just a word or a line that comes to me. Once in a while a whole poem gels and I put it down on paper. It doesn’t work so well for me to force the writing. I think it is better to find the idea and then write about it later,” said Ms Nawrocki.

She is particularly proud of the upcoming publication of Potato Eaters. She had entered this manuscript in at least ten venues prior to it being selected nearly simultaneously as the finalist of the Codhill Poetry Chapbook Prize and being picked up for publication by Finishing Line Press. “I completed it a little over a year ago. It is a culmination of many years of rejections and of trying again and again,” she said.

Potato Eaters is available for pre-order now, for $12, by visiting homeofpotatoeaters.books.officelive.com/default.aspx and selecting Finishing Line Press. The paperback will be released on November 3.

“I hope that people read them and enjoy [the poems],” said Ms Nawrocki, “and relate to them on some level. I try to be accessible.”