Eloise studied Sappho’s fragments in their many translations. They spoke to her, although Sappho herself remained as cryptic as an abandoned bonfire on an overcast day at the beach. This metaphor is actually the exact image that greeted Eloise on her first day inLesvos in 2005. She had made her pilgrimage to the ancient Greek island that was the home of Sappho, a trip made possible by a COLA grant from the Cultural Affairs Department of Los Angeles and awarded annually to an established writer residing in Los Angeles who has at least 15 years of publication history. The feeling of the Eloise’s experience in Lesvos permeates The Islands Project, and it is remarkable.

Sappho is addressed as a seductress, an ambitious poet, an exiled aristocrat, and both ocean and island who envelopes the psyche of the poet but still remains elusive. In the sestina “I Know the Word is Figment, but I think ‘Fragment,’” Eloise uses synonyms of the word “fragment” to end each line. Although it is an impressive execution of the daunting form, Eloise laughs when I mention the poem, calling it “a monster.” Sestinas look hefty, usually big blocks of stanzas. This one starts off as such with long lines, but, with each stanza, the lines get shorter, more fragmented. Eloise expounds on the second stanza, which is a description of how island chains form. Fascinated by the structure of these land masses, how they are formed from volcanic matter rising up from the core of the earth, she explains these phenomena to me over the phone with characteristic precision and a childlike delight in the natural world. The rest of the poem plays on this image, juxtaposing it with the nature of isolate languages, isolated souls.

Eloise begins and ends her impressive collection with memories from her own childhood, so I ask her about the search for the mother in her collection—the immediate presence of her own mother resting between the lines of her poems. I ask whether the poems are directly about her or about a Greek lyrist. The feel of the collection is that of a book within a book, one that carves through Eloise’s own history. Carmen V. Klein, her mother, passed away a year ago, and it was this loss that inspired “When Did a Self Begin?”—a poem written for and about the mother who was told, “Be the boy in the family.” A poem in twelve sections, it is placed near the end of the collection and mentions a photograph. Eloise reveals that the picture offered the ending that she needed to put the poem to bed. She shares with me the serendipitous occasion of stumbling upon this photograph—a snapshot of she and her mother. Memories, for Eloise, are fragments of experiences that form a whole person, a whole psyche, a life. Like an island chain, like strips of papyrus or old photographs, they are the materials for a modern-day lesbian poet to weave her own legacy to leave behind.

 

           Maxine Kumin describes the poems in the collection as “electrifying,” “provocative,” and “heart-wrenching.” This is no wonder, as life can be described with the same adjectives, and Eloise, with precision and wonder, achieves the daunting task of not only making sense of her own life, but her mother’s and Sappho’s as well.

 

AI: You traveled all the way to the island of Lesvos for research on Sappho. At what moment in your writing life did you know Sappho would be the focus of one of your collections?

 

EKH: I wrote a poem about Sappho in my book Artemis In Echo Park.  I always felt that the poem really represented some interesting investigations in form--it was a poem written in sections and each one differed from the others quite a bit.  The poem also discussed fragmentation from a lesbian perspective.  What is a fragmented life, how does one describe a fragmented vision? I was circling around talking about a lesbian poetic tradition. So, that idea started to play out in the background and eventually I had to try to write a book to explore it.  

 

AI: You've encouraged so many to be writers, to pursue their craft and believe in themselves. At any point in your writing life, was there an individual who you respected as a writer who believed in your work and gave you the push you needed?

 

EKH: Actually, I have not had that experience to the degree I would have hoped for.  Perhaps because I didn't have so many mentors is what has been a driving force behind creating a writing program where people could experience whole-hearted support.  I did have a wonderful friend and mentor in May Swenson.  She encouraged me quite a bit, but she lived in New York and I lived here, and that was long before the internet gave people easy ways to communicate and build ties.  But, it was important for me that somebody from the other side of the country, a very respected poet whose work I had studied, had positive things to say about my poetry. She also often "gave" me poetry competitions to judge by recommending me or suggesting magazines to which I should submit work.  So, in many ways, she was very important to me.

 

AI: Have you seen/written a poem in your sleep and then woken up and typed it and eventually published it? What do you make of the subconscious as muse, as telepathic communicator to writers? Should poets pay more attention to their subconscious and less to writing manuals and workshops?

 

EKH: I used to wake up with ideas, but that isn't something I do so much anymore.  It's hard enough to sleep!!  But, I do believe that there is a little factory under the main brain that is constantly producing things to think about.  I have learned to just take those ideas, images, snippets of a line and welcome them into the mix.  I don't judge sources.  As for writing manuals and workshops, they have their place to be sure, but it is also very important to read and read and read and write a great deal when first starting out.  There are lots of little blockages to break through and they are only breached by doing a lot of "background" work.  I think as writer I learned much of what I know by writing a lot, writing my way through problems, writing myself into an understanding of how I work best.