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To those not familiar with her work, let me introduce Ms. Carmen M. Pursifull. She is considered the Matriarch of the Red Herring Poetry Workshop, of which I have been the director for the past dozen or so years. Carmen has been a member since the inception of the workshop and is the only poet to have appeared in every issue of Matrix, our yearly anthology. She has read from her work on radio and television and has given workshops in Iowa as well as locally. Carmen has led a full life. She was an interpretive dancer with a group in New York City and in the early 1950s taught Mambo and Cha-Cha-Cha with Killer Joe in the old Palladium ballroom on Broadway. Later she joined the Greater New York City Musician’s Union, Local 802 and traveled with Latin and Calypso bands in Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Lorraine, Ohio, Baltimore, Maryland to name a few places. Tired of leaving her children with their grandparents she quit show business and became a bartender, a profession she followed for many years and one which gave her a vivid insight into the human condition that has served her well as a poet. Upon her husband’s retirement from the Navy they moved to Illinois where she began to keep a diary. Before long she noticed that she was writing in rhythm and Carmen the Poet was born. During her career she has published eight books of poetry plus an additional one with her occasional Poetry partner, Professor Edward L. Smith. This is her 10th book and it is loaded with multi-layered poems, which is, incidentally her style. In this book she alludes to the Micro-World, which utterly fascinates her. She confesses she is a novice in this subject, a lay-person, she calls herself, yet her usage of metaphors are quite on target, in whichever subject she chooses to use them. She has a vivid imagination and intense emotions, plus a sense of humor which is needed occasionally, with the subjects she tackles in poetic mode. So read each poem slowly, then read it again, and watch each layer unfold new interpretations of the subject at hand. Enjoy! Steven Kappes Director, Red Herring Poetry Workshop March, 2007 |
