“The grand piano that fell from the sky / did not make a sound as it crushed me. / Nor did I make a peep, lying pinned / under the weight of that beast. / I felt a cold pedal in my stomach, / a wooden leg stuck inside my back, / metal strings pressing on my lungs. / Around me were tuning pins, / damaged hammers, broken keys. / I lay very still, not feeling any pain, / wondering if perhaps I’d already died…�
Author Jodie Hollander, who has been working as a poet since 2009, recently released her second poetry collection entitled, “Nocturne.â€� The excerpt above is a brief snippet of ±á´Ç±ô±ô²¹²Ô»å±ð°ù’s poem, “Dream #1â€� which is one of the dream poems featured in her latest collection.
±á´Ç±ô±ô²¹²Ô»å±ð°ù’s describes “Nocturneâ€� as being set in a “technicolor world of dreams, ghosts, classical music and Key West storms.â€� Additionally, the collection is said to “chart the complicated repercussions of family dysfunction and musical obsession while traversing the landscape of the human condition and exploring the need for refuge in the natural world.â€�
“Nocturne� is partially characterized by a strand of dream poems that are interspersed within the collection, Hollander explained. This poetry style is also, ultimately, where the collection’s title was derived from. The word nocturne is most simply defined as night music, specifically piano compositions. This title fits the collection not only because of the dream poetry that Hollander has woven into it but also because of her father, another integral focus of the collection.
“While the first collection focuses predominantly on my relationship with my mother and her journey through cancer, this book focuses more on my father, who is a professional pianist, and what it was like to be the daughter of a musical genius,� Hollander said.
Though she is now the proud author of two full poetry collection books, Hollander explained that she did not begin her career in poetry right away. Hollander was constantly writing poetry during her high school and college years; however, the potential risk and instability that comes along with a career as an author or poet worried her initially, she said.
“I always wanted to see what would happen if I took my writing seriously because even when I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a poet, and I instead followed a career as a teacher because I wasn’t sure how to make a living as a poet,� Hollander said. “I reached a point in my early thirties where it was really sort of eating away at me. I was getting to the point where I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I had to give it a try.�
Despite mass economic downturns that were affecting most people at the time, Hollander remained steadfast in her decision to begin working as a poet full-time. She moved to England to pursue a one-year Master’s of Arts in poetry. After the program, Hollander said her career took off.
Dream 1 by Jodie Hollander
Hollander said she still believes that her risky jump into the world of professional poetry and writing was one of the best decisions she made.
“For me, I think the part that I am the most proud of is that I was willing to take an ill-advised risk, which was to leave a really good teaching job, that I had to give myself the chance to see what would happen if I were to dive into poetry full time,� Hollander said. “I’m still surprised that I took that chance because it could have easily backfired, but I am really glad it didn’t.�
“My Dark Horses,â€� ±á´Ç±ô±ô²¹²Ô»å±ð°ù’s first full-length poetry collection, was published in September 2017 and proved much easier to structure than “Nocturne,â€� she said. The first collection seemed to just fall into place and almost structure itself, Hollander said. “Nocturne,â€� however, presented Hollander with the challenge of making sure its framework and structure was significantly, and deliberately, different from her first book. The inclusion of her dream poems provided an interesting way to differentiate the two books.
“I thought that the work with the dreams was a really interesting way to frame the collection,� Hollander said. “Particularly since one of the opening poems [Dream #1] is about the dream of a piano falling down from the sky and landing on me. So, I thought carefully about how to use these dream poems to frame the collection as a whole and also how to help readers tap into the surreal quality of the poems through the dream sequence.�
In regards to what makes her stand out from other poets, Hollander said she believes readers will find her poetic voice to be quite distinct, as it is something that she has worked hard to hone over the years.
“I do tend to write about family dysfunction and musical obsession just because those are the things that I experienced and the things that I grew up with,� Hollander said. “I would say that maybe my training in traditional meter and form has really served me well because it’s helped me to develop my poetic ear and have a sense of sound and what makes a poem pleasing. I’m always striving to make my poems ear-pleasing.�
In 2018, Hollander and her husband resided in Flagstaff for several months. Though their careers took them elsewhere at the time, Hollander said that neither of them truly wanted to leave.
“I just felt so connected, not only to the community but also to the natural environment,� Hollander explained. “Since then we’ve just sort of been waiting for an opportunity to come back.�
As of this year, Hollander has officially settled in Flagstaff and said she looks forward to the possibility of incorporating the northern Arizona region into her work in the near future.
