The Ground Underneath my Feet: First published poem

Monday, December 31, 2012

First published poem

I've read Diagram since 2008, when my friend Marissa published her beautiful "Wish List" in issue 8.5. I loved both Marissa's list and the publication itself. Since 2008, I've probably submitted somewhere between eight and ten essays to Diagram. (All rejected, but kindly, Ander Monson is a great writer, a generous reader and a great advocate for the writing community.) Last spring, they accepted one of my poems and today it went live. It's my first published poem and I'm super stoked to have work published in a journal I've admired for over five years.

Check it out: When you say you're from Detroit by Rachael Button

2 comments:

UnknownJanuary 1, 2013 at 3:21 AM
Congratulations. Love it. Resonates with Detroit-ness.
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rachael_shayJanuary 1, 2013 at 11:23 AM
Thanks Uncle Glenn!
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Books I've read since arriving at Holden Village:

-Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

-Ninemile Wolves by Rick Bass

-Close Quarters by Amy Monticello

-The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich

-The River Why by David James Duncan

-My Heart is an Idiot by Davy Rothbart

-The Necessity of Empty Places by Paul Gruchow

-The Sparkling-Eyed Boy by Amy Benson

-Best American Poetry 2011, Guest Editor Kevin Young

-Best American Poetry 2006, Guest Editor Billy Collins

-The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich

-Mink River by Brian Doyle

-Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

-The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

-Cowboys are my Weakness by Pam Houston

-A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit

-The Way It Is by William Stafford

-Plume by Kathleen Flenniken

-Words for the Empty and Words for the Full by Bob Hicok

-The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

-Love: An Index by Rebecca Lindenberg

-In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard

-Mountains and Rivers without End by Gary Snyder

-Weetzie Bat by ZZ Francesca Lia Block

-Fire Season by Philip Connors

-Invisible Strings by Jim Moore

-Heavy Lead Birdsong by Ryler Dustin

-Waltzing the Cat by Pam Houston

-Claiming Ground by Laura Bell

-Love that Dog by Sharon Creech

-Best American Poetry: 1999, edited by Robert Bly

-Good Poems edited by Garrison Keillor

-Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry by Billy Collins

-A History of Love by Nicole Krauss

-The Wild Tree by Richard Preston

-The United States of Arugula: How we Became the Gourmet Nation by David Kamp

-Heartbeat by Sharon Creech

-The Great House by Nicole Krauss

-A Little More About Me by Pam Houston

-Red Moon by Benjamin Percy

-Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chounard

Publications

-museum of americana-"Looking at Dinosaurs"-forthcoming

-Prick of the Spindle-"A Complicated Love Letter"-forthcoming

-Pank-"Detroit: An Index"-forthcoming

-Pithead Chapel-"Humanities 557: A Twenty-Something Survey Course"-February 2014

-Orion (web) The Place Where You Live-"Holden Village, WA"-November 2013

-On Being public radio blog-"Veterans Day Parade: Detroit, MI"-November 2013

-Painted Bride Quarterly-"Long Distance"-July 2013

-Diagram-“When you say you’re from Detroit”-January 2013

-The Nervous Breakdown-"For Old Lang Syne"-December 2012

-Wake: Great Lakes Thought and Culture-“Crossings” -May 2012

-Writing in Public -“The Birwood Wall”-January 2012

-The Collagist-“The Birwood Wall”-December 2011

-Redivider –“Unsent”-Spring 2011

-Ozone Park -“Conservation”- Spring 2011

-KNOCK Magazine – “Public Displays of Affection”-Winter 2011

-Creative Nonfiction – “Why I Run”-Issue #39, Fall 2010

-Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment –“A Brief Natural History”-Spring 2010

Holden Village

Since August 2012, I've lived in a village you cannot drive to--a village with no cell phone reception, that receives its mail by boat. A village edged by Cascade cliffs and wilderness areas so remote and well-preserved that the forestry service requires crews to clear trails using long saws rather than chains.

Here, no one has cable. We listened to the presidential debates gathered around a satellite radio. Here, the internet lags and our hydroelectric power dwindles during the cold months. We take short showers and hang our clothes on the drying racks to save power. We stoke wood-burning stoves in order to keep warm.

Holden Village is a Lutheran retreat center, an intentional community staffed mostly by volunteers, although not all of Holden’s residents are not Lutheran, or even religious. People tend to hike, snow shoe, read poetry, make pottery, knit winter hats, and wear wool socks. During the summer, villagers tie-dye t-shirts, bulletin boards, and prayer flags. It’s a transient community and with few exceptions; no one lives here for more than a couple years.

I visited Holden Village for the first time in 2011. I volunteered for three weeks as part of the village's lawn and gardens crew and loved the village so much I spet the next nine months searching Holden's website, looking for job or volunteer openings. In July of 2012, Lake Chelan School District hired me to work a para educator in Holden’s “remote and necessary” public school--a job I love. I work with eleven students: age six through seventeen. I coach cross country, lead writing workshops, and tutor reading and math. I live with three other women in a chalet with a porch swing and a wood burning stove. From our windows, you can watch the sun rise and set over the mountains.