{"id":3587,"date":"2020-05-29T09:30:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T23:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=3587"},"modified":"2020-05-26T12:34:39","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T02:04:39","slug":"poetry-spotlight-bel-schenk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2020\/05\/poetry-spotlight-bel-schenk\/","title":{"rendered":"POETRY SPOTLIGHT: ‘Television Flickers’ by Bel Schenk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"Bel<\/a>Today we are focusing on a different form of poetry, with a verse novel written by poet Bel Schenk. Our Poem of the Week is ‘Television Flickers’ from her book Every Time You Close Your Eyes<\/em><\/a>. This verse novel features a series of short poems that, when strung together, paint a vivid picture of the North American blackouts of 1977 and 2003.<\/h1>\n

<\/p>\n

Post written by Poppy Nwosu<\/pre>\n
I am constantly impressed by how many different ways poets are able to express themselves, their themes, ideas or stories through poetry.<\/p>\n
In my past Poem of the Week blog post entries, I have covered children’s poetry<\/strong><\/a>, collaborative <\/strong><\/a>or raw memoir style<\/strong><\/a> poetry, social commentary (both here<\/strong><\/a> and here<\/strong><\/a>) and poetry about nature<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0memories<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Today, for the first time, I am looking at a verse novel.<\/p>\n
Here is the foreword to Bel Schenk’s Every Time You Close Your Eyes<\/em><\/a>, which sets the scene of her verse novel:<\/p>\n
Every Time You Close Your Eyes<\/em> is set during the North American blackouts of 1977 and 2003. All of the characters are fictional <\/strong>except for David\u00a0 Berkowitz and Christopher Reeve. <\/strong><\/p>\n
David <\/strong>Berkowitz, also known as Son of Sam, is an American serial <\/strong>killer and arsonist. His crimes terrorised New York City from <\/strong>July 1976 until his arrest in August 1977. Christopher Reeve <\/strong>played Superman in four movies. He was paralysed from the <\/strong>neck down after a horse riding accident in 1995 and died <\/strong>in 2004.<\/strong><\/p>\n
 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\"Bel<\/a><\/p>\n
In many ways, I feel like the very first poem within this collection is also a kind of foreword, working very well to set the scene and create an atmospheric picture of what is to come (or maybe I’m just trying to sneak an extra poem into my post!).<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
Here it is:<\/h1>\n
\"Bel<\/a><\/p>\n
The book continues with a series of vignettes, each a window into a moment, a life, an experience across a vast city during troubled times. These poems weave together beautifully, creating something special and vivid, as well as an insight into a completely different place and point in time.<\/p>\n
What a moving and fascinating read.<\/p>\n
Here is a lovely quote I found about the book, by someone who is able to put it much better than I:<\/p>\n
‘Bel Schenk tells the story of disparate characters sharing New York City through two blackouts. Through a blunt poetic style infused with subtle irony and a tact for laying down a soul (Deep inside is exactly what you are thinking right now<\/em>) Schenk adheres to people wanting to connect, with each other and with themselves. Every Time You Close Your Eyes<\/em> is a work of intense atmospheric enquiry.’<\/strong><\/p>\n
 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u2013 Heather Taylor Johnson<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
And finally, here is the poem of the week. It is that very last line that truly gets me right in the heart, every time I read it. It is incredible how powerful words can be.<\/p>\n
‘Television Flickers’ by Bel Schenk,\u00a0from\u00a0Every Time You Close Your Eyes<\/em><\/a><\/h1>\n
\"Television<\/a><\/p>\n
Discover more about Every Time You Close Your Eyes<\/em><\/a><\/strong> on our website.\u00a0Want to read more Bel Schenk? Click here<\/a> for information on her collection Ambulances and Dreamers<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n
And remember, the best way to show your support for writers, poets, publishers and booksellers is to buy books!<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Visit our website<\/a> or contact us on 08 8352 4455 for more information, or to purchase a book (or three!).\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>We can post your purchase to your doorstep!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0Today we are focusing on a different form of poetry, with a verse novel written by poet Bel Schenk. Our Poem of the Week is ‘Television Flickers’ from her book Every Time You Close Your Eyes. This verse novel features … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[855],"tags":[864,856,46,861,862,858,859],"class_list":["post-3587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-spotlight","tag-australian-poetry","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-by-women","tag-poetry-spotlight","tag-poets","tag-women-poets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-VR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3587"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3599,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3587\/revisions\/3599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}