Hearts Forged in Resistance: Chella Courington's Evocative New Poetry Collection

Friend of the podcast, Chella Courington, returns to read from her “Hearts Forged in Resistance.”

Chella Courington returns to our podcast to share her latest release, a dynamic volume of poetry called “Hearts Forged in Resistance,” pre-order price guaranteed until September 8, 2023. The book will be released by Finishing Line Press on November 10, 2023. 

Listen to us speak with Chella about her hauntingly vivid poems and hear her read on this episode. You don’t want to miss this beautiful language and these evocative images, flowers of words, all. 

(And hear her husband, Ted, say hello in the background now and again.) 

Learn more about her on her website. 

And if you haven't subscribed to our newsletter, why not do it now? 

Transcript

0:28

We want to welcome you all to MFA payday, where we talk with people about how they make their MFA pay. We're your hosts, Barry Drudge and Dreama Drudge. And today our guest is Chella Currington. That's right, Chella Currington. She is a writer and teacher whose poetry and fiction appear in numerous anthologies and journals, including the DMQ Review, the Los Angeles Review, and the Anti Heron Cheek. She was raised in the Appalachian South and now lives in California with another writer in D. C. Two feline boys. Her novella, Adele and Tom, The Portrait of a Marriage, was re released by Inspired Magazine in February 2023. Her most recent work is a book of poetry. It's called Hearts Forged in Resistance. and can be pre ordered through September 8th, 2023. So go out there now and order it. It will be officially released November 10th, 2023. Pre order now at finishinglinepress. com. That is finishinglinepress. com. Learn more about her at Chela Carrington dot net. We want to welcome you, Chela. Welcome back. You're a friend of the show. Yes, you were on a few months ago. We were so happy to we loved it so much. We just had to have you back. That's right. Well, I love being with you so much. I just had to come back. So tell us a little bit about your book that's coming out, Hearts Forged in Resistance. Where did that title come from? May we ask? Yeah, I'm just so pleased with it. Um, you know, as we all have, we've been just done by the, um, invasion of the Ukraine. Yeah. And I've always done, or wanted to do, issue poems, poems that, Some of the poems that deal with issues of social justice and homelessness and democracy and freedom of vote, and, and it's very difficult in poetry to deal with issues of social justice, without going into a rant. There are writers that really do wonderful poetry like Alicia Oscar. And she's able to keep that balance between political issue and eloquence of language and multi layered language. And that's always interested me. And so during early on, I did several Ukrainian poems and began to just look back to my collection of poetry to see the kind of issue poems had been doing during the years. And came up with a collection that I was proud of. And I mean it's various voices various issues I think a key thing about it is that it is that variety. And I was just very pleased when finishing line press said they would. Love to publish it. And I must say I'm two things I'm thrilled about. One, the cover is going to be lovely. It is. It is a painting by Robin Gowen in Santa Barbara and she's a well known local. painter and it's from a picture of a sunflower that I took from my sunflower garden and it's just beautiful. I think that the book is worth her painting on the front. Beautiful cover. And then there's just an extraordinary blur by Alicia Ostroker on the back of the book and I'm proud of that as well as the book itself. I think it works well as Is a collection of poetry about issues. Well, you mentioned the variety of voices in the book and the variety of poems and the issues they address., would you please honor us with a reading from it and give us a little taste of that? Yeah, I think that maybe what I'll do is Maybe read five minutes from it, and then we have enough time to read a few poems toward the end. Sure, that'd be great. So, I'm going to start with the opening poem called Job's Daughter. I do not sculpt from God. He has no lip for me, only from my father. Tall and brown, hurling insults like thunderbolts. God calls him Harelip, Mooncalf. Father hides seven days under three sheep. God forces a camel to sit on the cold earth. Head down, hands father a flint, slice the thorax. He bellows, father turns away, not a butcher. The camel lives two hours. My father crawls inside the camel skin and folds it over him. Flesh still warm. That is so, so evocative. That's so visceral. I mean, thank you. It's it's it's something how what made you I mean, it's like, you know, you're You're right there with the person in the camel. I mean, that's that definitely, you've set quite a tone with that. What what possessed you to do it that way? That's amazing. Well, you know, we don't often hear the voice of Job's daughter. Hmm. Gosh, I'd like to hear this story from her point of view. Yeah. And how did she feel? How did she behold her father? And it was with great regard, and she was so attuned with her father that she almost became one with her father toward the end. And I was just moved by that, quite moved. All of these poems are 10 lines or less. And I use no punctuation except for the M dash. That's a little Emily Dickinson. Yes. Yes. Wow. Well, I hope you'll forgive us I know you were going to read for a period of time and we were just so moved we had to jump in if you have more please continue. Yeah, that was that was so. Truly stunning that I, I'm left, happily flabbergasted. I'm beautiful. Just beautiful. Well, that's close to my heart when you say that, because as you, who are writers, you know, one of the most rewarding things is to hear the response of people who hear your work, who read your work. To me, that's just, that's just worth, you know, worth it. We want that audience. Um, writing is a, is a lonely trip, solo trip, but then it's not whether it book clubs are doing poetry readings or hearing from someone who's read your book. Um, that's where it really strikes home to me. You realize I've touched someone on something with my words. So the second poem in the collection is called Stigma. Women are beaten, sometimes to death, writing poetry. My husband, maybe my father or brother, reads my emotion, spilling on the page. Seize passion for a hidden lover, my burka not enough to shield me, just out of reach. I rub against silk and satin, turning inward to speak of loneliness. Tulip dying in the desert. Tulip dying in the desert. Oh, Chela. I you're gonna make me cry but also I'm someone. Particular lines will just like resonate in my mind. Like that one, or from the last poem, insults like thunderbolts. I mean, you, you have these beautiful images that just pop out along the way. Again, we're interrupting, we're interrupting your flow. We're sorry. So good. I love that. I love that. Mm-hmm. Well, it's, it's, it's because you've, you've chosen an economy of words by, by short poems, and yet each, each word seems to have. An impact each phrase. So brava. I mean, I really love to play with language and, you know, I think that even when the Define yourself as a poet, or a fiction writer, or just a writer. I just define myself as a writer. Poetry is so good for just helping you hone the language. So when you're writing a novel, you're still working with The sound of separate words. And I just find that so, so uplifting and rewarding and useful to the art writing. That was beautiful. Again, you're writing poetry as you're speaking. Do you have a little more for us or we'll try tremulous heart. Caleb calls me sweetmeat. With cloth, Sister Marie stuffs his mouth and warns, don't let him touch you. Sister Marie speaks softly, Christ wants you spotless. I want stigmata. She says they appear unclean girls who never let boys. Play with her privates. She catches Caleb and me twisted together. Forces me to kneel on top of rice. Digging into flesh. Scouring every cell. No more nasty girl. Like angel wings her arms lift me. As she bends down kissing my knees. Blood smeared over trembling lips. Wow. Wanting stigmata. How interesting. Wanting to be that chosen, that clean person. Wow. Thank you for that. Thank you so much for reading those for us. Absolutely. Oh, you're welcome. I hope that it encourages those listening to buy hearts. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Question for you then,, how does your poetry offer a means of resistance, would you say, such as what impact do you hope that it will have on readers? Hmm, that's an excellent question. Well, first I want them to be moved. And I want them to see that language can be at the service of issues. I mean, you know, throughout centuries, eons of centuries, uh, writers have talked about the power of the word and what it can do, and I think that's truly possible. Um, and I would like for readers to see that, you know, they can write about issues and, and language. Language can be a strong tool for expressing whatever they see as a oppression or, you know, and, and issues change from community to community, it may be a strong tool something in your own community that you see as an issue. It may be, um, something that the gap, that a corporation is doing that you take issue with. I mean, the issues aren't consistent. They can be per, it can be very, a very personal issue to a larger, more universal issue in terms of social justice, but I would like for readers to see that language. is in the service of, um, social benefits, social justice, social issues. So in, in that thought, um, when you approach crafting language, uh, to convey these complex emotions, you know, how do you play with words? I mean, do you just toy with phrases that you think will fit, or do they kind of come? Like as if, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm not a poet, so therefore it's always, it's always, uh, uh, amazing to me to see these things, these turn of phrase come out. I think that that all writers, their approach is so different. For me. I often start if I'm thinking about something, maybe thinking about the homeless situation in Santa Barbara. I often start with a free ride, not in poetry, but just to free ride. Okay. Five minutes, just jotting down all my ideas. And that helps me to not only think about it, but maybe to uncover an image or a word that becomes significant. And what I want to do with that issue of homelessness. So I usually start from a free write and work from there. Okay. Maybe take a word, a phrase, maybe do another free write or two. And my habit is always to let work sit. You know, with the first poem, I'll put it down and first draft and maybe come back to it. You know, it could be in an hour, it could be in a week. But I do like to let things sit, uh, and continue to go back so I can get that language and the ideas. I sometimes worry that I don't have enough multi layered, uh, issues going on, but I have to write what comes organic to me, isn't it? I try to, and it's usually toward the final drafts, But I began to layer that language to get more suggestion. And, you know, I never want to lose the mystery of poetry. I get the mystery of writing. I don't think you need to explain everything. And I think the experience, whether it's a good novel, whether it's Beloved, um, whether it's, uh, Song of Myself. That you want a mystery still there. The unexplained, because that's the, you want the experience. I mean, I can remember the first time that I read Mrs. Dalloway, I was in high school and maybe I was a backward high school student but I had Yeah, that's great. Very little clue of what she was doing. Right. But I did love the language and I read it out loud like I did poetry. And I think, you know, that is one experience of language in writing. Is the experience, not analysis or explanation, but just letting those words quote from the big chill, just let those words run over you, wash over you. Yes. And that's part of my experience of writing and reading. Yes. You know, I, I also, Barry said he's not a poet. I'm not a poet either. I've written a little bit of poetry, but I think something you said, uh, really sparked. Why that is that I don't write more poetry, and it's because of the mystery and the beauty of the unexplained. And, you know, I write lots of prose, and in general, that's my personality to over explain things. But poetry, I want it to just be almost as if you're just going and you're sniffing a beautiful flower. Like, you don't have to think about the scientific way. You know, all of that is happening in your brain. You're just smelling the flower. Yeah. You're living the experience. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's another way of saying what you said. Yeah. And so, um, I, I love poetry. I love to just let it wash over me. I like poetry that understand like poetry. I don't understand. And that's beautiful. So. Having said that, I hear that you might have a few more poems to share with us. That would be great. I would love to. Thank you. Mama's rug is an elegy I cannot write. Lush red wool, bordering blue hydrangeas. Her rug unfurls at night. By morning, loose strands scatter. I gather them in a glass bowl, once holding goldfish, one at a fare. I weave abandoned threads into a morning shawl, pray for her return. I, I talk about issues, that's, That would be a personal issue. Personal can be political, but this is a personal issue. Yeah. Resilience. It's the tumor remembered, cut from my breast. My breast chiseled from my bone, rising in dreams. Are at the margins of whispered denial when startled, I feel it, how it might again pull at my nipple and slip through my ribs like a cat prowling. That was hard to write but that was many years after 20 years ago I had breast cancer and went through the whole process. Thank you. And that was such a jolt of mortality, I found it hard to write about. I journaled a lot, but I found it hard to write about until many years later, when I had distance between it. Well, thank you for sharing that personal story. It's... Beautiful. I often think about how poets make such beauty out of pain. Um, do you suppose the experience changed your writing even though you weren't directly writing about it for you said like 20 years? Oh, I think you did, Raymond. To tell you the truth, I was teaching at a small college in Montgomery, Alabama. And the stuff I was writing was academic stuff, and I had a contract to, uh, do an academic book on Jane Campion and her films. And after dealing with breast cancer, I thought, And the more films I watched of Jamie Campion, it was not her films, but it was some personal things I found out. And I thought, I don't want to spend my time doing this. I want to spend my time doing something creative. Yeah, I want something that I mean academic writing is great and it gives, but that was a pivot that I made a turn. Yeah, I decided I want to be more creative, why not doing it changed my approach and since I've done creative work, though by academic work. was probably created in some ways. Sure. Yeah. But it sounds it sounds like to me, I mean, it goes right back to the title hearts forged in resistance. It's like the event of having the breast cancer and re redefined and it was transformational. Just like as we hear these things, I think the emotional aspects and you said mystery. I like that you, you create, create a spot that we, we look at and reflect upon. It's very foreign sometimes to our lives and perspectives. So I think it's, As it's forged, it's, you know, and resistance, once again, resistance creates friction. So that creates heat. So then it goes back to the heart being forged. I'm sorry. I'm just, I'm just going crazy over here about this. I love it. I love it. I'm just luxuriating in it. Well, it's true. It is. I mean, it wouldn't, I maybe, I guess that's you, you had a moment where you're saying, okay, no longer do I want to do this academic. Writing. I want to be creative. Yeah. And so that to me would be part of that, that forging as to what your heart is. Yeah, I'd like to interject as well. I wanted to say this earlier, but I didn't want to interrupt your beautiful flow. You said something about you fear sometimes that your poetry isn't layered. I think Barry is making a very good case for it being layered. Even the title and, um, and then mama's rug. I'm like someone who writes an elegy to mama's rug. Cannot tell me that their writing is not layered. That those loose strands are not just loose strands. Right. Right. So I think you're selling yourself a little short there. Oh, thank you. That's yes. Um, but you know, too, I'm both, both of you do prose largely, right? Yes. Yes. I have, you know, with me, I have kind of, um, what do they call it? A grasshopper? Uh, because, you know, I start with poetry and I went to prose poetry, and I've done a few shorts. I never stay, uh, focused. Well, I stay focused, but I like to move around in my writing, like, you know, so I just finished a novel. I'd done a novella. Mm hmm. Right. I just wanted the experience. There's something about the experience and go back and forth. And, um, so I guess I'm a bit of a riding grasshopper. Beautiful. I think that's great. Yeah. I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all. Not at all. Well, we want to make sure that everybody knows that your book, Hearts Forged in Resistance, should be pre ordered. And we want to see, we want to see people out there responding to this. Get to it before September 8th. That date is coming up really quickly. It is. Time just, just escapes me. It will be officially released November 10th, 2023. Is that correct? Uh, yes. So they said advanced orders shift on November 10th, 2023. And you're right. Is it finishing flying press. com. All righty. Well, we'll, we'll make sure and continue to keep that word out there because I think this is a definite, my goodness, worthy, worthy of the reading. Yes. We just want to thank you for taking some more time with us. This has been a wonderful experience. I mean, it's nice to revisit with writing friends, chums. It's always such a delight to talk to you. I feel like I'm stuck in good friends. Yeah. Delta. Nothing. Um, Nervous about it. Just right. Oh, no. Yeah. That's, yeah. We just, we just wanna thank you so much for your time. Yeah. Your poetry was just, oh, thank you. Beautiful. So beautiful. Oh yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I can't wait to get the book. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. We order hours. Yes. And until next, that we thank Chela for her time and she's, she's a wonderful blessing to have us in the writing community. And I think she's going to, her voice is going to lend some great impact, I do believe. And so until the next time we just thank you all for listening and keep writing all the things.