Judy Kaber was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in the suburbs of Long Island, dropped out of school, went to California, married, moved to Maine over 40 years ago, lived in an old house, had two kids, wrote a lot, published a little, went back to college, taught school. She’s now retired after 34 years of teaching, but still writing, still living in Maine. Influences include Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and Denise Levertov. She’s been published in Comstock Review, Wolf Moon Journal, Off the Coast, and Puckerbrush Review. Contest credits include the 2009 Maine Postmark Poetry Contest sponsored by the Belfast Poetry Festival for her poem “Industrial Remains” and the Larry Kramer Memorial Chapbook Contest in 2011. She is currently Poet Laureate of Belfast, Maine.
I see you’ve been writing a lot, indeed, and with attention to stanza shape. You seem to have published recent poems here, under Poems (Posts, in WordPress terminology), as if they were a blog … and most of your journal poems in Journal Publications. They all look great. Were you intending to get feedback on the Poems (Posts)? Or is that, in general, a problem with all things bloggy — that there is in general not much reaction? Also, do you send out the blog poems published here to literary journals? Cheers, and prosperity, from Northwest Arkansas!
Hi Greg- Thanks! I’m afraid this site is woefully out of date. I need to put aside a few days to work on it. It’s mostly a place for me to share poems. I’m not particularly looking for critiques here as all of the poems I put up have already been publishes, either in print or online. That said, I am always open to comments. I’m glad you enjoyed them.
Judy, understand. You’re well published. I had a poetry group here in Fayetteville, Ark, but it dissolved when 2-3 of ’em, slam poets primarily, refused to revise anything. Re your influences, I took a grad class in W Stevens & Hart Crane (just read the P Mariani bio on Stevens but wrote my dissertation on Hart Crane). As an old boy publishing poet, just wrote a (comic) poem, not quite done I think, about taking an undergrad date to hear Denise Levertov. What was I thinking?
Hi again, Greg. I’ve been in a number of critique groups over the years. They tend to come and go, depending on membership and commitment. Yeah, poets (slam or otherwise) who tend not to want to revise are a problem. Why be in a critique group if you don’t want to have others respond to your writing in a way that will help you revise? Interesting that your poem involves Denise Levertov. She was a big influence on me at one time. For a brief time I rented a house that belonged to her son which was located next to her ex-husband’s house in Maine. I also went to hear her read once.
Well, Judy, here’s to Levertov and all the other good/great poets dead and gone and yet still with us: Clink! Let’s take their salutary examples and run with ’em. As Harold Bloom suggests, there’s an anxiety of influence, sure, but learn from the great ones without merely imitating. For me, it was poets like Robert Creeley who were a big influence on whatever it was I was trying to write, with his colloquial informality, skittering touch, and quatrain forms. (As an undergrad, I saw him read twice, and when I asked sophomorically after one reading for a ‘small favor,’ meaning autograph, he said sure & bent down and kissed my neck. Well, he was potzed for sure.)
Hi Judy,
I just discovered your poetry while meandering about the internet. I wanted to let you know that “like the sky I’ve been too quiet” really struck a chord. Good intentions are always with us, but we so often fall short of realizing them. It is a wonderful, sad poem with gorgeous imagery, and unique in the turn that it takes. I see you are currently poet laureate of Belfast. I plan to attend the Belfast Poetry Festival, so perhaps I will hear you speak there.
Sincerely yours,
Nancy Sobanik, Lyman, ME.
I meant to add that Maine NPR has your audio poem “In our Country the Rooftops” posted
https://www.mainepublic.org/show/poems-from-here
and that is absolutely stunning, and I encourage readers to click on the link.
Thank you for sharing your poem.
Nancy
Hi, Nancy. It was great to finally meet you! I am updating my website (if I can remember how to do it) and saw again your comments. Thank you.
I’m one of your former students. I was thinking about you the other day, and I’m so happy to have found your website! There’s a direct path from your classroom simulations and read-a-thons in 4th grade back in the 90s all the way to what I currently do for a living, and I just wanted to thank you!
Once upon a time your son came to class and showed us his Magic cards. I was so taken by the fantasy of that, and the books that you gave me to read (So You Want to be a Wizard), and I’ve carried to this day. Ironically, I now work for Wizards of the Coast.
You were easily the most impactful teacher on the trajectory of my life.
I’m back in Maine, working from home. I would love it if you dropped me an email and maybe I could buy you lunch or dinner sometime!
Hi Judy,
I picked up word of your workshop via a google crawler that helps me track writing project happenings. Its been a long time since we met, but I wanted to reach out to say to you that you were a good mentor to me when I was young and dumb. I’m happy to have stumbled onto your website and to see the beautiful work you are putting out into the world. I hope you are well.
Hello, Tanya! I do remember you. And you may have been young, but you were always far from dumb. Delightful would be closer to it. I hope you are doing well, continuing to write and spread the good word.
EJ (Eben)
Wow! This is a long delayed response, isn’t it? I’ve been terrible about keeping up my website. I really do need to do better. What a delight to hear from you! I am so glad that you found my class fruitful back then. Are you still working for Wizards of the Coast? I don’t remember which of my sons introduced you to Magic Cards (Tevye or Moses), but they are both into RPG and of course familiar with Wizards of the Coast. Let me know if you get this message and if you are still in Maine. I’m retired now from teaching public school. Mostly I work on writing poems and also teaching writing workshops for adults.