Besides contributing work to Painting to Poem (2006), A Book of Graces (2009) and numerous anthologies,
Kaaren has read at the Halesworth Fringe Festival and open mic events around the world. A commended winner of the Fakenham Poetry Competition
in 2008, Karen maintains an active online presence in the UK,
including a blog for Poetry Aloud and frequent contributions to the webzine Ink, Sweat and Tears. Kaaren is also
a member of the Suffolk Poetry Society.
In its multi-layered meditation of a man atop a ladder restoring the thatch roof of a simple dwelling and the Gaia-centric purpose to which he would put it, Kaaren’s 2011 poem “Balance” builds on the anthropologically-themed “And They Made Tools” (see below), a 2009 ekphrastic piece derived from a John Tuckett cyanotype (see above, left), toward a firm advocacy for a more compassionate proportion in future between what we can do for--as opposed to to--one another and the planet:
And They Made Tools
simple at first, a stick, a sharpened
bone,extensions of coarse fingers, rough ragged
from grubbing soil to get at starch tubers,
roots for the blood clan's sustenance, once mashed,
stone pounding fibre into flat pulp,
sweeter, easier to eat.
Walking the land, they learned by feel
its skin,
discovered food from the earth-speak terrain.
They found river pebbles, half cracked, thonged them
stick fashion, granting more accurate aim.
Flaked flints, 'slicers', scraped clean small mammal hides,
destined to become medicine bags, clan
clothing for these nomadic gatherers
who captured prey in nettle woven nets,
traps sprung from tree limbs, from stick covered holes.
discovered food from the earth-speak terrain.
They found river pebbles, half cracked, thonged them
stick fashion, granting more accurate aim.
Flaked flints, 'slicers', scraped clean small mammal hides,
destined to become medicine bags, clan
clothing for these nomadic gatherers
who captured prey in nettle woven nets,
traps sprung from tree limbs, from stick covered holes.
Survival their goal,
uniformitya surety, but new ways of doing,
living, becoming tool makers took hold.
They walked the land upright.
They lived in community.
They made tools.
And they survived.
Kaaren Whitney, 2009
NRK broadcasting’s counter-intuitive utilization of video—the medium that’s done more to foment a culture of distraction
and creative impatience than anything else in the last 70 years—is reacquainting
stressed contemporary viewers with the frantic-less pace and dedication associated
with traditionally absorbing pursuits, like knitting, fishing, fire stoking and even rail
travel, all presented in real-time detail, much like the field-to-kitchen table experience evoked by
Kaaren’s “Berries This Year”. Keep up with Kaaren and her work on Facebook here.
Hosted by Frank Chambers and PoemAlley's Nick Miele, the Barnes & Noble's Open Mic Poetry program meets the second Monday of each month in the cookbook section on the main floor of the bookstore (located in the Stamford Down Center), beginning at 7:15 p.m.
For more information, contact:
Barnes & Noble
100 Greyrock Place Suite H009
Stamford, CT 06901
________
Additional Information:
The Case for Working with Your Hands, Or, Why Office Work Is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good
Matthew B. Crawford
Penguin Viking, 2011
Mark Frauenfelder
Portfolio,
2012
HarperOne, 2005
Anodea Judith
Shift Books, 2013
The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth CommunityDavid C. Korten
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006
John C McLoughlin
Baen, 1987
The Craftsman
Richard Sennett
Yale University Press, 2009
Andrew J. Wakefield
Skyhorse, 2012
David L. Lewis PhD
Skyhorse Publishing, 2014 (forthcoming)
