Interview With Author Barri Bryan

Barri is a fellow author at eTp

She grew up during the thirties in a small town in West Texas. Life was simple then. She sensed there was a world beyond her limited horizon, but it seemed remote and far away. That horizon expanded and moved nearer when she discovered reading and books. When she was in the seventh grade, she found Emily Dickenson and fell in love with poetry. Since then, she's been an avid fan of rhyme and meter.

Today she is a wife, a mother of three, and a grandmother to seven wonderful grandchildren. She is also a former teacher and educator and a published author with over twenty novels, five books of poetry, numerous essays and short stories, and one how-to-write book to her credit.

Her writing career began late in life. She published her first poetry book in 1995.

She likes poetry, George Strait's music, old movies, and Earl Grey tea. Her hobbies are reading, quilting, sewing, knitting, crocheting, taking long walks, and growing house plants and herbs.

Barri is here to tell us about her book of poetry, What Will Suffice

Q) What is this work about?

A) The subject matter of these one-hundred poems is diverse and varied with vivid and recognizable impressions, originality of diction, and variance in tone. Each poem has a life of its own. The theme is the common thread of humanity that speaks to the heart through many forms, melodious language, and personal emotions. The author's devotion to craftsmanship lends immediacy and expressiveness to a wide variety of charming and introspective poetic images.

Q) Why did you write this?

A) That one came right out of left field. I can best answer that question by quoting one of the poems in What Will suffice.

Remission

It returns again from time to time,

This affliction to set to lilting rhyme

Sad and sundry discrepancies,

Along with assorted disparities

That dispute and differ – argue, debate.

Rhyme has potent power to medicate

Every paradox, each ambiguity

That wounds the poet’s soul in me.

Meter mitigates the endless quest,

Eases the pain that throbs in my breast,

Thus giving balance and symmetry,

To soothe the ache of incongruity,

The pen brings momentary cessation

And temporary amelioration.

There’s no permanent healing, not even in verse,

For a terminal blessing that’s also a curse.

Q) How long did this project take you?

A) I don’t just sit down and start a book of poetry. I write when something, or someone, inspires me to do so. This is a collection I wrote over a period of about three years.

Q) What is your favorite book?

A) Can I cheat a little and have two? Oh, thank you. My favorite non-fiction book is Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. My favorite fiction book is titled Rossetti. It is a collection of Christina Rossetti’s poems. She lived from 1830 to 1894 and during that time wrote some of the most beautiful poetry ever pinned.

Q) Which is faster? A 1972 Gremlin full of drunken Russian clowns, or a 1968 VW van full of hippies and questionable smoke, and the windows are up?

A) Before I begin, I have to tell you, I operate mostly on hunches and premonitions. I have approached this from several skewed angles and I come back each time to the same crossroads of confusion. I know nothing about hippies and even less about Russian clowns. I question questionable smoke.  How drunk is drunken? AHA! I think I know the answer. The Gremlin is faster because it’s newer. How could a 1968 VW stay in the dust of a 1972 Gremlin? That is my story and I’m sticking to it.

Q) What’s your favorite movie?

A) My favorite movie is Now, Voyager. I first saw it in 1944. Oops, I telling my age.  

Q) What is the first creative thing you wrote? When did you write it?

A) I wrote my first poem when I was in the first grade. It wasn’t much as poems go – one of those moon-June, tune- croon things. But my mother and my dad liked it, and I thought it was a masterpiece. That was all that mattered then.

Q) Who is the person you most admire?

A) The person I most admire is my husband. He is my hero.

Q) What is the oldest thing you own?

A) I have my grandmother’s autograph book that she had when she was in high school in 1902. It has fallen apart, but my grandson used Photo Shop to take pictures of each page and make it readable again. I can’t read the original book, but I keep it and treasure it.

Q) Who is the greatest writer to ever live?

A. If anyone is deserving of that title, it’s The Apostle Paul for the inspiring epistles he wrote to the churches of the New Testament.

Q) Who would win in a fight, John Wayne or Clint Eastwood? Why?

A. Do you mean if they were fighting each other? I admit Clint Eastwood is a tough hombre and mighty handy with a gun. I am also convinced John Wayne is the fastest gun in the west and can lick his weight in wildcats. He is also dead…  After much consideration and a definite personal bias, I have to declare John Wayne the winner.

Q) What is your favorite poem? Why?

A) This is a tough one.  My favorite poem is Remember by Christina Rossetti.  I love its uneven rhythm and the words speak to my heart. If you ask me tomorrow I may give you a different answer, as my favorite poem changes often.

Q) What can we expect next from you?

A) If you are asking about my writing, I am now working on a contemporary romance. It’s titled Starting Over.  It’s the story of a middle-aged couple and their struggle to recapture the love they lost somewhere along the way. If this is a general question, I can’t answer it. I don’t know myself, what I will do next.

Thanks for dropping by Barri.

Thanks for inviting me. I had a great time.

Barri's book(s) can be found, among many other places, at the following links:

http://barribryan.com/

http://www.etreasurespublishing.com/what-will-suffice-by-barri-bryan/