Creativity with Edge, Intensity & Heart: The Poetry of Tim Staley
Tim Staley creates poems that are edgy, intense and have heart.
In other words, his poems are like compassionate questioning humans…
…In particular, compassionate humans who are baffled by the mysteries of:
How—with so many lives of those we love overlapping with our own life—can we maintain our individuality without sacrificing our humanity?
If we have empathy, how do we protect our own vulnerabilities?
Writing poems with empathy is an edgy task that Tim takes on without inhibition. Tim’s poems are first an acceptance of the emotions of others as well as those of the persona, then a translation of those emotions into words, images and rhythm.
Expressing with intense rhythm, Tim is an excellent performer of his poetry. His exacting delivery keeps me present to life’s fragility. In fact…
…many of his poems cry: not a cry out, but the cry of a caring, often lost but seeking, humanity.
As if new terrain, Tim’s poetry traverses how to reconcile within our own lives the lives of loved ones, particularly the lives that seem gone, but are not.
Tim writes:
Death is a wave of sound
you can’t wave off.
…
Imagine a book
open on a table,
only instead of pages
the black depth of the universe.
Now imagine sunlight
all spread out
on that same table.
(from “Doomsday Jogging,
for Lance 1984–2020”)
* * *
and I race to the bathroom
and scrub her kisses
from my forehead
and just above my collarbone
with antibacterial soap
until my skin rips from the cracks
and my 45 years pour out
(from “STALLED INK for Lois, 2”)
As I read, or listen to, Tim’s poetry, I witness a heart and mind in tandem—at work to make some sense beyond the senses—of it all.
Tim writes:
Could be my self-esteem talking, but I feel
violated by the achievements of others.
Buzz and Neil—they got so famous
for running the farthest away.
(from “You Only See the Sun’s Crown When the Sun’s Not Around”)
The poetry of Tim Staley reminds me that our lives are filled with the lives of others—and that being human means this condition is one of struggle and love.
For a sample of Tim’s incredible poetry and delivery:
NOTE: The poems quoted in this blog post review are new poems provided to me by the author, Tim Staley, and are not yet published.
You can hear Tim read them at Creatives in Conversation on October 21, 2020!
Join us for an engaging evening of poetry by Tim Staley!
Wednesday, October 21, 2020, 5:30 pm to 6:45 pm MT
Note: If you already receive my newsletter, then you are on my email list, and you do not need to sign up again to visit with Tim Staley.
By being a newsletter subscriber, you are automatically registered for this event—you will receive the zoom link and password that provides entrance to this event via an email sent at 3:30 pm MDT the day of the event.
If you have any friends who’d like to visit with Tim Staley, send them to my website to join my email/newsletter list, which is their “registration” for the event.
Tim’s newest poetry chapbook, The Most Honest Syllable Is Shhh (Night Ballet Press).
Click here: Available at these locations.
Click here to read reviews of The Most Honest Syllable is Shhh
Tim’s debut poetry collection, Lost On My Own Street (Pski’s Porch Publishing).
Poet Tim Staley founded Grandma Moses Press in 1992 and continues to serve as publisher.
He lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
His website is poetstaley.com
Blog author
Mary Dezember, PhD, is a poet and author of fiction and non-fiction. She earned her PhD in Comparative Literature, specialization in Comparative Arts, from Indiana University in 2000, with PhD minors in Art History and Performance Studies.
Professor of English, she teaches Comparative Arts, Art History, Creative Writing and Literature at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Her publications include several non-fiction essays and articles and two books of poetry: Earth-Marked Like You (Sunstone Press) and Still Howling (CreateSpace Independent Publishing).
Mary met poet Tim Staley, who was also editor of the journal Cacti Fur, at the Best Beat Poem Contest 2016 sponsored by Beatlick Press. Her poem “Still Howling and Endnote to Still Howling” won first place and was first published in Cacti Fur.
Photo is at her Still Howling book launch in 2016 at No Land in Santa Fe, hosted by Strangers Collective.