Mary Torregrossa and Kathabela Wilson
Mary Torregrossa projects a childlike wonder and yet a strong, detailed, observant humor and strength. Her fascinating storytelling captures our attention, acknowledging the mysterious reality of life and the warmth of individual presence.
By Kathabela Wilson
A microscope on the poet
What were the beginnings of your poetry, and how did you begin to develop your unique, artistic voice?
I wrote my first poem in my religion class notebook at Blessed Sacrament School (in Providence, Rhode Island). It was a short quatrain alongside a drawing I made, “The Israelites roamed the desert/They had no food or drink/So God sent them manna/To keep them in the pink.” The people I drew in the desert all wore turbans as in the Khayyam book. The nuns must have been perplexed and had a good chuckle.
Later, in public high school I started to write poems in creative writing classes. Public school allowed me to take drawing and painting lessons in Art class, which was my real creative interest. Among all the art styles my interest settled on collage, putting small bits together, cut out and assembling into a meaningful whole. Somehow I feel this carries through into the present, in my poems.
A telescope on the poet
Mary Torregrossa reading her poetry.
What experiences have nurtured your inclination to writing poetry and telling a good story?
I got my love of poetry from my mother, Angela. Like many of her generation she memorized and recited poems in grade school. She would recite those poems to us children at bedtime along with singing popular songs from the 30’s and 40’s. In the house growing up: The Golden Book of Children’s Poetry, a volume of Robert Frost’s poems, “A Hole Is To Dig,” by Maurice Sendak, and a full color illustrated copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” with full-page pictures of exquisite scenes of Persian characters, country- sides and gardens.
Years later, I heard about a free, public writing workshop in Pasadena and seriously turned back to poetry. I often think, when contemplating a new poem and playing it back in my head, that searching for the right word or image is like making a visual decision while creating a collage. My poems are detailed and sensory, not so much philosophical, and as I might do in a collage I include texture and color within the details of the narrative. In my heart of hearts, I am a storyteller.
Pulse of the poet
Mary Torregrossa and family (L – R) Nina Loarca, Mary Torregrossa, Mynor Loarca, and Elaine Loarca).
I know you love being a teacher, and have a beautiful family as well, how does all this blend in your life poetically?
When I came to California from Rhode Island in the early eighties I became an Adult School ESL teacher. It is a job I have loved from the first time I walked through the classroom door. It is my passion. I am a mother first, a teacher second and a poet third.
I found I could figure out the learning styles of individual students by understanding life histories and cultural backgrounds. It made me a better teacher to show them not only what to learn but also how to learn using a wide variety of strategies. The stories and the wisdom messages made their way into my poetry.
I have a collection of portrait poems and my challenge is to not over-dramatize or romanticize what I want to share through the poem. One day with the help of my insightful friend Jon Neff, I finally acknowledged that I like people and I like their stories and I should explore that spark in my poetry. It gave me direction, along with the inspiration I was used to relying on, to build a meaningful body of work.
Compass of the poet
Mary Torregrossa
How has the teaching of poetry and the process of building a poem captured your heart?
Integrating teaching and poetry I often facilitate writing workshops. But I have been a student as well studying one summer with poet Kimiko Hahn at the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, and with my former mentor David Charbonneau. Both poets helped me hone my editing skills.
I love the editing process of an evolving poem as much as I like the initial writing of it. My motto is “Essence and Essentials: Go where it takes you, take only what you need”. The challenge with editing is keeping the poem alive with the authentic voice of the poet.
Festooned
By Mary Torregrossa
White cumulus mountains
drift by infinitesimally slow
in a blue Wedgewood bowl of a sky.
Paint is peeling on the front step,
the wood is rutted from days of rain
but above me a panoply of clouds
like Greek Island postcards
with bright stucco houses
pile high above a churlish sea.
And look – a Chinese dragon
pursues a leaping tiger while
my two dogs worry the chain link gate
hoping to be let lose into the street again.
Three pigeons pose on the telephone pole.
The neighbor from down the road
doesn’t need the heavy coat
he started out with in pre-dawn hours,
he slings it over his shoulder
on his way home in the still afternoon,
work boots chunk against the gravel,
a billowing white swan follows him to his door.
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The entire world manages to slip into each of your poems, Mary