Mining The Depths

Danielle Notaro
Local Poet
Riverside Festival of the Ars

"Where does your poetry come from?"
"It comes from rhythm, from deep inside, and I've found a way to connect it with images. It's emotional. It's a personal kind of transformation that I go through every time I write. So I try to find a way to connect the subconscious with the conscious world."
"Is there one poem that you've written that you most deeply connect with?"
"Wow… There are a couple. I want to say this: the first time I really knew I wrote a poem that hung together was in, like 1983, and it's called 'Orange Slice Ships' and the imagery and simplicity of the moment and the journey I took in that poem all hung together and it slipped out whole, which doesn't happen very often. Within the past, when the economy crashed, I wrote about five poems from 2010 to '11 that all resonated one another and the way that situation was affecting me and the world. There are two poems specifically: One is called 'I Will Be Who I Am,' and the other one is called 'Glossy Americana,' where I sort of find a way to come out of any sort of tribulation. It's kind of mining the depths, you know, despair and looking for 'the cure is in the wound.'"

If you want to check out Danielle's poem "Orange Slice Ships," you can watch her read it on YouTube at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxzBH5NAcZ0. 

---