“It’s important to honor grief, sometimes”
—Sheryl St. Germain
The night of February 21st, 2018 I attended the Sheryl St. Germain poetry reading at Penn State Harrisburg. At the reading, Sheryl St. Germain read from her new poetry book, The Small Door of Your Death, as well as some unpublished personal essays. She also read a few essays and poems that had been published in the past. The Small Door of Your Death is a book of poems that are about her son’s death from heroin.
The remarkable aspect of the reading was the extreme courage it took for Germain to write about this really emotional issue and share it with the public. That takes bravery. Not only this, but the emotional material that she shared with a room full of strangers shocked me by her courageousness. It isn’t easy to share personal family information with just anyone, but Germain turned her pain into poetry. She, essentially, used her love of writing to try and help grieve and cope with the loss of her only son. She also mentioned how not everyone in her family agreed with her writing about her son’s death, but she had to do it. This was her way of healing and for that I see so much strength in her.
There were certain moments that I started tearing up from the heavy, emotional poems that she read. When she read them, I could physically feel the emotion in her voice. She didn’t start the reading off on a heavy note though. She read a poem that was pretty humorous. Her transition from light matters (the poem was about food) into the darker work that includes many poems about her son was extremely natural and flowed well. It wasn’t an abrupt change in the slightest. It was extremely natural. The raw emotion that I read and heard is hard to describe. The way she spoke was physically felt on my body. I was in complete awe at how she turned her pain into poetry that is so beautifully crafted.
Going forward, I can see myself taking a lot from listening to Sheryl St. Germain speak. One thing I can take from this reading would be her tips on writing. Her three important things for writers are: One, you have to have something to say that people want to hear. Two, it’s never what happened. It’s what it means. Reflect. Three, personal essays almost always fall flat if you don’t do some type of research/fieldwork. But, don’t sound like an encyclopedia. Use your own voice. She also said to write beyond the end of a poem. It’ll help you figure out how to write the end of a poem. And, on the subject of poetry, she also mentioned how to write a villanelle. Since the lines repeat and you can’t really go anywhere with it, have it have to do with something you’re trying to show the obsession behind. That way, the structure works into the theme.