If I can trust that Providence will send me as much recognition as is spiritually good for me— —Then I've found the link between art and attending to the pure Life. Eve: Do you look for validation elsewhere? Esther: I‘ve gotten hooked on poetry critique boards, which worries me some. And all this publication is unbelievable. I bear in mind, though, some words of Christian Wiman: "Acknowledgment no matter how small, a publication or prize, a word of praise from a friend — this is all a sort of alcohol . . ." (So the Troblems and Prubbles continue . . .) Eve: What brought you to poetry from languages and your long-term dedication to Quaker writings? Esther: I‘ve sporadically written poetry all my life. I‘ve always needed a creative outlet, whether it was translating, composing, writing, or editing. I composed music as a teenager; I came back to it later, after the translating project stalled, and was astonished at how much I‘d learned about composing from translating. Later, the translating project reopened and I found I‘d learned so much about translating from composing that I was able to translate some of Bjørneboe‘s metrical poetry. In both cases, I guess that through caring deeply about the work, I learned the discipline of getting the details right in a larger whole— a ripening of artistic consciousness that I hadn‘t had in my youth, when I just wrote things and hadn‘t a clue about revising. After the translating project was done and I went back to working on the Quaker Bible Index, I soon discovered I needed a counterweight to that work, something which would get me off the head plane— so I started dabbling in poetry, again. I found the American Academy of Poets online in 2003 and registered, but the forums weren‘t working. I forgot all about them until 2 years later when, a few days before my 70th birthday, I got an email saying the forums were now functioning. And as my long-delayed poetic education began, that was when I found that I‘d learned a lot about writing poetry from both translating and composing. Eve: That‘s a good example of how creative processes from seemingly unlike disciplines feed upon and inform one another. With your renewed interest in writing poetry, and just cresting 50 published poems, were you surprised to be selected for TCE‘s Featured Interview Poet? Esther: Well, I‘ve been astonished at how many poems have been accepted in various places, especially in the last year, and your taking all 6 of the batch I sent you was the first surprise. I certainly didn‘t expect to be asked. And I was terrified. But it was a godsend. I‘ve been yearning for some way to take stock of where I‘ve been and where I‘m going as a poet, and this is a tremendous opportunity. Eve: It‘s seldom I accept more than 1-3 poems from a batch. Your 6 (2 appearing in the centerfold folio) were not only finely crafted, but loaded with charm, and showcasing your deft treatment of the absurd. Your control of language isn‘t a mistake, yet you seem somewhat doubtful.
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