The ‘dailyness’ in a Vanessa Smith poem is never dull, and never what’s expected. Her west-coast swagger is reminiscent of early Joni Mitchell – ‘my face, like an interview, / tells the most important / stories first.’ Her ‘uploaded anguish, ‘ is that of a speaker who ‘wipes daily dabs of lipstick on the car carpet, ‘ saturating the space, making a hole in its place. She sees that a ‘rolling wave held something back in response to the sand…’ and finds a tragedy there. The daughter of a portrait painter, this painter/poet’s first collection is clear-eyed and insightful, poetry that points to her inheritance, a vigilant and insistent gauging: ‘We wait, we dry out into plaster, and become the wall / The dry and cold of a California I never mastered is coming back in plumes.’
-Elaine Sexton, poet and critic, author of Drive and Prospect/Refuge
This is so moving and delicate – the journey from caring for infants to looking after the elderly and their needs, and all the tenderness and sense of employment (and possibly enjoyment) both require. The rhythms of marriage and divorce work so well on the page. Smith is so right in what she says about January – the way it is always twice as long as any other month. I like the sense of the world in which every tiny thing counts for something and the cost of that on the heart and soul and the corresponding yield…
-Susie Boyt, author of Loved and Missed and My Judy Garland Life
Room Tone is wildly evanescent – traversing expanses of time and space, then spiraling into the palm of Smith’s hand. … [Her] poems are illuminated by a ferocious sense of beauty and tragedy, converging in sublime insight.
-Broughton Coburn, author of The Vast Unknown and Aama in America
In Room Tone, silence is rendered palpable through Vanessa Smith‘s hauntingly described scenes of life, love and loss. Whether it’s observation or imagination, there’s a meditative nature to her writing that will transport you to a state of personal reflection. This collection is a call to open your heart to the mysteries that surround us.
-Sara Arnell, author of There Will Be Lobster: Memoir of A Midlife Crisis
Table of Content
The Beginning Seams of January1
To Where Dailyness2
He Has Always Been a Bird…3
Stripping a Bed4
infrequent diaper changes5
Today My Daughter6
A Woman of Three Ways8
He Asked Me Once, We Married Twice9
Beach House10
Kathmandu12
In the Hospital15
TREES, and Besides Us17
California Dry Tethered18
the picture as interview19
House Fire in Chile20
An About to be Cremated Swimmer22
My Mother-in-Law’s Shower23
Five Different Painters’ Lines25
Inventive26
About the author
Vanessa Hedwig Smith is a painter, filmmaker, and writer who has lived and worked in India, Nepal, England, and the US. She has worked on feature-length documentaries, shorts, PSAs, music videos, outdoor installations, murals, and other design projects. Smith produced a BBC Correspondent which helped free a 14-year old girl from prison, helped to change Nepalese law, and won the Amnesty International Media 2000 Award. She holds a BA from Stanford in Urban Design, and an MA from Columbia University in Anthropology. Her work can be seen at http://vanessahsmithpictures.comMore ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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