cast/crew/
connections

IntroductionBUY A CD

“In our flesh a gear, nosing,
rolling through the drifting conversations,
little engine spoking through our pleated lungs,
piece of grit, hangnail,
last stocking with a run --”full text of poem

Can you learn something about life by rifling through a sock drawer? Absolutely. That’s what I love about poetry, its endless possibilities, its capacity to be born in unlikely places. I have a room full of poems, and parts of poems. The folders in my file cabinets must be some kind of record, but of what I can’t exactly say. A wish, perhaps, that I could perform magic by creating music and meaning with words. If I did that, then two things would happen: 1) I would have reciprocated some of the pleasure I’ve had in reading and hearing other writers’ poems; and 2) I would have a place in the world because my imagination found a home in language. In many respects that wish has come true: Little Wheel is both a response to the world of poetry, and an invitation to visit my corner of it, the small but busy room of my mind. Welcome.

Little Wheel consists of l3 poems read by seven different readers. The poems themselves cover a lot of ground, from Medieval Europe to instances of magical realism in the suburbs. They are linked, but not in an obvious way. The little wheel that turns through our lives moves equally through terror
and kindness. One of the speakers in these poems says, "We live in terrible times." But in another poem a different speaker talks of the "small blank kindnesses of sleep." For her, the simple act of putting a child to bed is an act of faith that the world is good and full of "small kisses."

But what is this world that allows for such extremes? While choosing the poems for this CD I realized how often I repeat myself: There's always "another world" someone is going to; the roaches in my parents' house keep "their contract with the other world." There's also "the living world" of family life, housecleaning, and ghosts. My poems about history evoke a world of pain and ignorance we like to think is in the past, but as my time-traveling porno-witch Madison reminds us, "I never left." Writing poetry is the best way I have of exploring my curiosity about these worlds and all their fluctuations. Above all, what I hope these poems have is muscle, the strength and flexibility to engage the listener and create for
him or her a pleasure sturdy enough to withstand our ever-rushing world, if only for three-quarters of an hour.

Like most writers I work alone, but I'm fortunate to have many wonderful friends, all of whom have great voices. Without these friends this CD would not have been made. To read about my great friends click here.

Copyright Sibbie O'Sullivan and A Dim Puce Production, 2005.