Love, Loss, Darkness and Matches

By Alyie Bertram, Madison Lass and Sarah Blanchard

Guest contributors

Gretchen Marquette, author of “May Day,” was chosen for the Spring 2017 Two Rivers Reading Series, a bi-annual campus-wide event hosted by the Coon Rapids English department on March 29, where she read and elaborated on the inspiration behind her book.

This semester, classes used “May Day” to delve into the world of poetry. At the event, Marquette read “Elsewhere,” “May Day,” “What We Will Love with the Time We Have Left,” and many other poems. “May Day” was included in the “Publisher’s Weekly” Top Ten Summer Reads and is a poetry finalist in the 2017 Minnesota Book Awards.

Marquette’s charming sense of humor and passionate personality shone through as she interacted with her audience. Silence filled the room as she brought “May Day” to life with its “intense exploration of love and loss,” as English faculty member Paige Riehl described. After the reading, Marquette opened the remaining time for questions. Attendees asked about what sparked her interest in writing, how she made decisions about structuring the book, and inspiration and advice for aspiring authors.

At a young age Marquette took notice of how prayers were structured. The intense wording and vivid images inspired her to create her own. She also said she has always been fond of biology, another source of content inspiration. She said that “nature gives us every single metaphor we might ever need.”

According to Marquette, her Minneapolis neighborhood, Powderhorn, has been “endlessly inspiring” and her passion for it is prominent throughout her poetry. Viewing the skyline from the 35W Bridge at night is especially motivating for her, she said.

At the event, Marquette also talked about the power of poetry. She said reading poetry helped her make sense of life. Marquette said she feels that she is “paying her dues” by sharing her work and that it’s her “turn to offer that up because many of the poems that meant a lot to [her] were probably very difficult for that poet to write and so it’s not the time to be shy.”

Marquette was experiencing emotionally challenging times when she was writing “May Day.” Her dog’s health was failing, a painful separation from her partner was underway, and her brother had just been deployed to Afghanistan. She drew material from the painful times and said she was able to come to terms with these things to look towards the future.

When asked why there are five sections in the book Marquette told the audience to think of it like “looking through a kaleidoscope and then every section was like turning it one click and looking at it in a little bit different light.” Marquette made the last section more hopeful describing it as “a middle bridge between the old work that [she] was doing and maybe another book.”

“We can strike the match and then the dark comes back, but then we can strike another match,” Marquette said.

Life is going to continuously break your heart, she said, but “you will never, not have beauty in your life if you look for it.” Marquette doesn’t want anyone to feel like a poem is a puzzle but instead “just a certain way of looking at the world.”

At the end of the event, she shared advice to aspiring authors. “Read as much as you possibly can,” she said. She encouraged reading a little bit of everything to find voices and techniques that work for people’s writing. She also recommended having a writer’s notebook using it as a tool rather than a chore.

In Fall 2017, the Two Rivers Reading Series will feature “A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota,” edited by Sun Yung Shin. Select authors from the book will visit Coon Rapids campus Nov. 1, 2017.

Click here for an interview with Gretchen or here for a review of “May Day”