AOTA-240322 - Curtis Crisler, Frances Jones, Spotlight 8th Annual Poetry Showcase

Out of the Air is a radio show that focuses on poetry and arts events. The Center for Creative Solutions is a local nonprofit that encourages creativity and innovation. They sponsor World Creativity and Innovation Week, which takes place from April 15th to 21st. They also organize a poetry showcase for students in LaPorte, Porter, and Lake counties. They have a poet laureate program for LaPorte County, including a junior poet laureate. The deadline for poem submissions is March 28th. The show also features an interview with Curtis Crisler, the newly appointed poet laureate of Indiana. He is a prolific poet and author. This week on Out of the Air features an all-poetry show, first with Gary Native and Indiana's new poet laureate, Curtis Crisler, and next with 79-year-old poet Frances Jones and her new book of poems. Our spotlight's on the Center for Creative Solutions' 8th Annual Jury Poetry Showcase with submissions due by March 28th for the World Creativity and Innovation Week. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. You're in the know with Esther and Larry, out on the air today. They're in the know with Larry and Esther, out on the air our way. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Welcome, you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, WVLP, 103.1 FM, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout Northwest Indiana and beyond. I'm Larry Breckner of New Perspectives Photography, right alongside here with Esther Golden of the Nest in Michigan City. Aloha, everyone. We're your hosts for Art on the Air. Art on the Air is supported by an Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Art on the Air is heard every Sunday at 7 p.m. on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at lakeshorepublicmedia.org, and is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Also heard on Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP, 103.1 FM, streaming live at WVLP.org, and Tuesdays at 4 p.m. on WDSO, 88.3 FM. Our spotlight interviews are also heard Wednesdays on Lakeshore Public Media. Information about Art on the Air is available at our website, breck.com, slash A-O-T-A. That includes a complete show archive, spotlight interviews, plus our show is available on multiple podcast platforms, including NPR One. Please like us on Facebook, Art on the Air, WVLP, for information about upcoming shows and interviews. And we'd like to welcome to Art on the Air Spotlight. It's from the Center for Creative Solutions, and they're going to be talking about what they do, but also something coming up with the Poetry Showcase coming up for World Creativity and Innovation Week. We have Cynthia Hedge and William Hollier, and of course my co-host is very involved in this, Esther Golden. Welcome all to Art on the Air Spotlight. Thank you, Larry. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Well, Cynthia, I'm going to punt it to you at first to tell us a little bit about what the Center for Creative Solutions does, and then an extension of that, what World Creativity and Innovation Week is about. Thank you, Larry. So the Center for Creative Solutions is a local nonprofit organization. The mission is to encourage creativity and innovation in our communities, which is a great positive mission to have because creativity is everywhere, as you all know, and it is within all of us. So it's really trying to encourage people to let themselves be creative, the creative person that they are, in various forms. So it can be creativity in the arts. It can be creativity in business, engineering, STEM, any area of life. There is always creativity. So each year there are two main events that the Center for Creative Solutions sponsors. The one community event is World Creativity and Innovation Week, which is always on April the 15th through the 21st. It starts on April 15th because that's the birthday of Leonardo da Vinci, who, as I think we would all agree, was one of the most creative persons in history. And it's an opportunity for us to take a look at all the creativity and innovation going on in the Northwest Indiana region. This is our 16th year working in World Creativity and Innovation Week, which actually makes us one of the first communities around the world to do this. And it has grown now to 140 countries throughout the world that are honoring World Creativity and Innovation Week. And even the United Nations several years ago got in on this because on April the 15th, that is, according to them, World Creativity and Innovation Day. So very important. And here in Northwest Indiana, it gets bigger and bigger. And the things that we're going to talk about, the poetry aspect of it, thanks to my colleagues Esther and Bill, have really grown significantly in the last eight years. So tell us about that, Bill or Esther, and about what is involved in the poetry competition that you have. And it's really a very friendly competition. It is. It's a lot of fun every year. And we have a jury poetry showcase that we have offered for the last eight years to students in LaPorte County. And then a few years ago, we expanded to Porter County. And this year, we've invited Lake County schools to join us as well. So we're really excited to see how many students might join us. When Esther and I first started, we worked really hard promoting this and trying to get people excited about poetry. We had three students submit poems. Esther, do you recall that? I do. And we were happy because we had a first, second, and third place. But the bonus was that they were all excellent poems. Yes, they were. Yes. And they all are. We have such a great time each year, Esther and I, reading through these poems and just kind of getting some insight into the young people and the way they think. Yeah, when we were young, we started kindergarten. We do start at kindergarten. And Esther, every year, comes up with a list of ideas that the students might use. So it really inspires them. And it's fun to see how they use that list to form their poems around. But this year, we're really excited because we have, on top of the poetry showcase for the three counties, we have our poet laureate program for LaPorte County that we've initiated. So last year was the first year we actually named a junior poet laureate, Carmen Navarro. She was a very excited, very capable young lady who wrote a wonderful poem and actually went to several events around the county last year and read her poem to the folks. And we're hoping that this year, with our poet laureate, an adult laureate, and a junior poet laureate, will interest a lot of the clubs and organizations in LaPorte County to have them come and read and share their poetry. So, Esther, is there anything you'd like to comment about it? No, just like a teaser, we're hoping to do a regional poet laureate, junior. Once we have these grand dreams, you and I. Once we start talking about creativity, we thought about perhaps a Calumet region poet laureate. When I did a little research into this project, Indiana has a poet laureate, and the town of Highland had had a poet laureate, but there are no other poet laureates in Indiana. So we're kind of a first going forward here. So looking forward to it. I hope the folks that listen to this, the young people, especially the adults, let us know your thoughts. I know there are a lot of poets out there. We have wonderful poetry slams, and I'd like to have those folks join us with their poetry. Before we end up, it's important to remind folks of several dates. And one of them is that March 28th at midnight is the deadline for submission of poems. Esther, what's your email address? TheNestMichiganCity at gmail.com, and that's T-H-E-N-E-S-T, and MichiganCity, all spelled out, at gmail.com. We have an online form on our website, but you should submit the poems to both locations. There's the Center for Creative Solutions dot com. We appreciate you coming on Art in the Air Spotlight and telling about that. We also will be hearing from Indiana's new poet laureate just in our next segment, and another 79-year-old poet as far as the show. Thank you for coming on Art in the Air Spotlight. Thank you, Larry. Thank you so much. Thank you. Art in the Air Spotlight and the complete one-hour program on Lakeshore Public Media is brought to you by Macaulay Real Estate in Valparaiso, Global Patrician Senior Broker. And as a reminder, if you'd like to have your event on Art in the Air Spotlight or have a longer feature interview, email us at A-O-T-A at BREC dot com. That's A-O-T-A at BREC, B-R-E-C-H dot com. Hi, this is Rob Quick, author of Finding Your Voice with radio, audio, and podcast production. And you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, and on WVLP, 103.1 FM. We are pleased to welcome Curtis Crisler to Art on the Air. Curtis is the newly appointed Poet Laureate of Indiana. He is a prolific, award-winning poet, author, and has published numerous poetry books, young adult books, poetry chapbooks, anthologized in many publications, and published in a variety of magazines and journals. His poetry has been adapted to theatrical productions in Chicago and New York. The breadth of his work and accomplishments would complete this program, and so I will just say thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Curtis. It is so nice to meet you. Oh, well, I'm so grateful that you have me, and aloha back to you. Thank you. Well, Curtis, how we like to start our show. First of all, congratulations on becoming the Indiana Poet Laureate, but we want to know your origin story. You know, our audience always like to hear how that artist that we're talking to now developed and everything like that. So tell our audience how you got from where you were to where you are now. I think with Curtis, though, like he must have started in the womb for everything that he has accomplished so far. Well, my mother, my whole thing to start out with coming out of the womb, I have this joke that I'd say that my mother, my first words were job, because my mother was just like, I got out the womb, my doctor patted me on the butt, and my mother was like, job, job, job, you know, and so that's been the whole mantra from beginning to now. But I started out, my aunt and I were really, I was really into sports and running and I played baseball, football, basketball, did track, all that kind of stuff. But starting out, I was always into comic books, and me and my aunt collected comic books. Marvel was our favorite, although we did have DC. We even had like Casper, Little Lottie, stuff like that. The Archies, things of that nature. The Archies. Yeah, and we would draw from, you know, I started out drawing and things of that nature. So which one did you draw first? Were you gravitating toward like the Marvel stuff? The Marvel stuff, yeah. So like the Avengers would always fight Zodiac, and they had somebody to represent everybody for Zodiac. So there's like a two page, I remember this two page, you open it up and it was Taurus and Ares going at it and they were ramming each other head to head, and it was a big opening. So you're trying to draw that and stuff. And we had so many comic books. So when we moved from the projects to Glen Ryan Suburbs, I don't know what happened to all the comic books. They just got lost and they wouldn't have been worth anything. But I know we had like some threes and some fours and some sevens of when, I mean, Iron it was just different ones. Like I'm trying to think of Wolverine meeting, what's his name? Iron Fist and stuff like that. So we just had a lot of comic books. And from the comic books, I actually was trying to develop my own comic book. And me and my friends would draw and things of that nature. And then when I finally got into drawing classes, I saw people who were really good. I had this guy, he started from the fingernail and the fingernail ended up being a finger. Then it was the hand. Then it was the arm. And he was pointing and it was pointing out in front and the person was out in front. And then it was like all the X-Men. It ended up being all that. We started from the fingernails. And I saw people draw with ink pens, which was like highly crazy because what if you mess up? And they were drawing with ink pens and things like that. So I tended to get away from that. But it takes me to fourth grade where we had to do something for Black History Month, speaking of February. And my mother helped me with my first poem that I can think of, which goes back to that instance where I wrote a poem about Jackie Robinson for fourth grade with her help. From that point on, you see a trajectory of me kind of writing poems in secret and keeping them to myself. And I think in high school I showed someone a poem, one of my friends a poem, and she showed it to everybody else. And I was like totally upset. And then when I got. That was that version of Facebook right there. The early version of Facebook. Exactly. Exactly. And so I was writing here and there. I was always doing something artistically, be it drawing, dancing, singing, something of that nature. So after high school, I was a three ring binder of things. I remember when I first came to Fort Wayne, I had roommates and they would not touch the binder because it's for guys. And it's like they just weren't in poetry. So that binder could just stay there and nobody would touch it, you know. And I remember one time coming home and one of our friends was over and she was reading it. And I snatched it from her and she started crying. And I thought she was crying because I was yelling, what are you doing reading my words? How dare you? And I'm thinking she's crying because of that. She's like, no, you need to show your work to the world. It's so beautiful and stuff like that. But I was upset because she was at that point, I felt like poetry just was this open wound of existence so that if people saw my poetry, they would see me. Highly personal. Yeah. And so at that point, I didn't think of it as sharing. It was later that the light bulb went off and I realized all the people that I was reading, Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, whoever it may have been, that that's what they did. They gave it up. And it's like, oh, man, I have to give it up. I have to share it. It's like, ah. And that's a part of poetry. It comes from the body and goes to the body. And so probably around the 90s, I started getting more interested in publishing. And then I went back to school after I had set out after high school for about four or five years. And then, yeah, I went back to school. Well, I went to high school. Cruz, can I ask a question about high school? Yeah. So when your friend showed your poem around, did it not work its way to the teachers? Did you not get any recognition at that point? No, it was more like underground. Underground? Okay. And I'm trying to think, was Ingrid our ‑‑ I can't remember if she was our salutatorian or not. But, you know, she had a lot of people reading it and stuff. And, yeah, so at that point, no, not to that extent, at least not that I know of. And I don't even remember how my English teachers felt about it. I don't think I shared anything with them because back then, when they talked about poetry, it was more, okay, here's a sonnet. We're going to go to Shakespeare. We're going to talk about Shakespeare. And these are things ‑‑ these are how sonnets are written and stuff like that. We never really had, like, workshops or studies around the writing of poetry when I was in high school. Especially not anybody contemporary. Yeah. Oh, no. Especially not that. And that's what I get on my ‑‑ that's why when I teach now, I try to get my students to see there are people who are living that are writing every day. And they're really good writers, too. And it's not just old, dead white men or old, dead anybody. They're contemporary writers. I just came from the AWP conference, and so many good writers, so many good artists that are there. They're writing all over the place. So, yeah, I want them to know that. I know. It makes you weak when you read something that touches you so deeply. I mean, that's ‑‑ actually, that's the feeling I got reading your work. Oh, thank you. And the line that I remember the most, and I'm probably not going to say it right, but ‑‑ and this is the title, but it works all together. In hell trees still grow. You know? It's just, like, it just is so incredibly powerful. And then, of course, the rest of the poem just really just wiped me out. That's the one from Tough White Sonata. Yes, yes. And that's ‑‑ it's weird, because the last couple of times I came to Gary, I went past where we used to stay. So we stayed right ‑‑ so the projects that we stayed in were the Delaney projects that were right across the street from David O. Duncan School. And so I could come home for lunch and eat lunch and then go back to school sometimes. And it was ‑‑ and so they tore all of that down. All the ‑‑ they tore the old projects down, the new projects. So from Roosevelt to Polk or Pierce Street, whichever that one street is that goes by the graveyard, it's ‑‑ all that is just leveled. And it's just a fence around it. And it's all gone. And it's amazing, because it looks so small. And that was my whole life back then. I know. That was just ‑‑ and I'm like, what happened to the one hill that went down? Because we used to skateboard down this hill, but everything is just flat. So it's all flattened out. And it's crazy to see from ‑‑ be at David O. Duncan and you can see Roosevelt, you know, the side of Roosevelt. We used to go ‑‑ they had the ‑‑ so that's where we played baseball. That's where they had the open pool you can go in the summertime, you know, that kind of thing. So it's really ‑‑ It's actually surrealistic as it changes. Like, for me, like, when I go into Gary, I so miss, you know, like, they put up that beautiful Jackson 5 mural. Yeah. And I didn't realize it was so temporary, really. Yeah. Someone told me ‑‑ a friend of mine had a picture of it, and they posted it on Facebook the other day. And he said they took it down. Oh. They took it down. They took the whole building, right? Right. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, it's ‑‑ I always ‑‑ we talk about how we're the last vestige, it seems, of people who knew Gary before it became what it is now. And what I mean by that is Broadway. You had Montgomery Ward, Sears, all of that was off the street. I always remember Sears opened up on a corner, and you walk in the corner, and right to the right, you had all those suckers that were perforated that went down to the floor. Oh, yeah. You had all those dots, those dot candies that were on the thing that went down to the floor. As soon as you went in, you smelled the popcorn. They made their own chocolates and stuff. Like, my mother always got the maple nuts. I was, why don't you get some chocolate? And she would always get the maple nuts. But we would eat them. You know, that's all she had, so we would eat them. For her to get anything, she had to, like, put coconut in it or something like that. So, yes, the parades, you would go to the parades. It lives through your poetry. That's why I try to get people to see that we were, I mean, I didn't know that people came to Gary to shop like that. Like, they go to the malls and stuff, and everybody's shopping online now. But people came to Gary to shop. It wasn't just the meals that brought them in. We actually had people coming in for, you know, to the storefronts and shopping. And how Christmas would be, how Thanksgiving would be. I don't know how many parades I was in myself, being in Van and different things, walking down those streets, you know. So, yeah, I always, when I come home, I used to go to the beach all the time because we moved out there, and I liked seeing the beach. But now you can't even get in it because they've redone it. And so you can't even park on the slope and look at the Lake Michigan to Chicago. But the same thing. It gets relegated to nostalgia, but it's so, you know. Yeah. But I still go down. I always have to go down Broadway. I always have to go down the streets where one day I just went down all the places where I graduated from and just seeing what's happening to the schools. Beckman. It was just the last time I was there, there's trees growing up out of the school that are coming through, you know, the building and things like that. And it was just like, wow. We used to sit there, and I thought I was going to go to Beckman. But when I was at Duncan, we had kindergarten to sixth grade. So kindergarten to third grade was on the first floor. They had fourth, fifth, sixth grade on the second floor. And when I graduated, they moved sixth grade to middle school. And so I was like, oh, I could have been at Beckman. And then I thought I was going to go to Beckman, and then we moved to Glen Ryan, and I ended up going to Kennedy King. And I was like, nobody even knows what Kennedy King is. This is a stupid school, you know. I wanted to go to Roosevelt and all that. But, yeah, I ended up going to Kennedy King, and then from there I went to Ward High School and graduated from there. Curtis, you know, we want to give a chance to hear some of your work for our audience, and I know we've asked you to have a selection. So tell us about what you're going to read for us, and go ahead and read that. Okay, this is called Sometimes It Snows in April. And it comes from a Prince song, but it comes from the last time it snowed in April about two or three years ago. And then all this stuff can't happen with it, and you'll hear that in here. There's a couple of references to Prince and Annie Lennox and Sun Ra. So there's this music element, but there's also this other stuff that's taking place. Sometimes It Snows in April. The snow fell like a mist god to bites of cumulus clouds, sped them down from heaven unto my midwest. An idyllic snow glowed round. The snow covered the branches, pulpy, thick like all the trees were Douglas firs. It was April 20th. There were blossoms bursting out of branches, headed towards spring, blanketing a chronic white-on-white commotion. Love took me straight to Prince. A day before fifth anniversary of the guitar player relocating to another plane. I bumped his back beat like meth. Every body answered. My city under resuscitation. Here comes the rain again. The next song in my ears. Annie Lennox knew proper way to place metaphors on violin strings. I rode around. This would be the last snow until the next snow. There's nothing like love in a car, being in the snow, letting music have me and bring me back. The officer who killed George Floyd will see bars. That's history. There's that. There's how Minnesota, people around the globe, exposed their voices like a universal tsunami. People morphed into an army of harmony. The snow moved me into sunrocks. Heat and bands birthed hallucinations of images. The ache of imagery. Too much. So my tears talked. Broken, recouping, I drove deeper. I video-lifed like a young lady did outside storefront. But it wasn't enough to hone the scratchy emotions unable to escape. Esquiesce to good trouble. The emails, the texts, the chatter. Miss me with that. I drove deeper. There's no talk in syllabic rumbles. Sunrock played for our mystic futures out there. I pointed car towards Minnesota. I drove forth out there. And I never pumped the brakes. Oh, beautiful. That's Curtis Crisler, our new poet laureate for Indiana. Oh, that's beautiful. You're so great at capturing the cadence of moments, really. Oh, thanks. Thanks. That's so good to hear. I hope I'm doing that. I try a lot to, is this something that I have in, I try to get people to connect with the moment. And I try to give them the moment. It's kind of like that common song, I wish I could give you that feeling. And that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to give that feeling through the five sensory attributes sometimes and through the emotional content. But it also does past, present, and future. I get that sense also from your words. So, Curtis, what does a poet laureate do, especially in Indiana? You're the new one, but maybe tell us what the mission is of that. What the job description is. So, basically, I represent poetry for Indiana. And I go around and hopefully I can get to as much of Indiana or all of Indiana in some kind of way with 94 counties. And bring poetry there. And the way I'm setting up stuff is I want to kind of go there and be communal with the people that I'm going to meet and have us kind of do it together in a sense. And I have what I call a pop-up Indiana children's circuit that I'm going to do. But the poet laureate does that. He or she addresses poetry out loud, which is an organization that helps get younger poets recognition in what they're doing with poetry. And then I'm just going to try to, yeah, just represent poetry in the best way I can to the whole state. Represent the whole state. So, I want to get out there. I want to see places I know versus places I don't know. And just, you know, commune with the people. And how long does it last for? How long are you a poet laureate for a period of time? Or how's that, you know, the mechanics of that? Yeah, it's a two-year period. So, December 31, 2025 will be my last day. The next day, the next poet laureate will be picked. They should have a ceremony where you hand off to the new poet laureate, you know, some sort of ceremonial thing. Kind of like the Miss America type thing, except it's, you know, I don't know, maybe write them a handoff poet. Yeah. Well, you're kind of a hero in your hometown here for Gary and everything like that. You have any plans to share specifically there? Yes. Yes, I plan on. There's some things I'm working on. I'm coming there to work with Alikia and her husband, Trent, who are doing, I think it's their second or third year doing a youth poet laureate thing there. And so, I'm going to set up something with them coming in, I think it will be around April. I don't know. We haven't set a date for that. And then there are other people who are, we're in the midst of talking about getting me there for other things, too. And I'll be in, well, Fort Wayne, I'm doing something at Hyde Brothers Bookstore, which is a renowned bookstore here. And there's a lot of stuff that's in the mix right now. Excellent. How can people find you? Do you have a website, contact information? If maybe somebody wants to commission poems, how will they get a hold of you? Yeah, they can come to PoetChrysler.com, that's Poet, and C-R-I-S-L-E-R.com. And they can send me information and I can get in touch with them from there. We appreciate you coming on Our in the Air, even though D-Dots and Did Beat Us to the Punch a little bit at Lakeshore. But we got a little more in-depth interview. That's Curtis Chrysler. He's the new Poet Laureate for Indiana and a professor at Fort Wayne and product of Northwest Indiana and Gary. Curtis, thank you so much for coming on Art on the Air. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, thank you. It's been a complete pleasure. Thanks, Esther. Art on the Air listeners, do you have a suggestion for a possible guest on our show, whether it's an artist, musician, author, gallery, theater, concert, or some other artistic endeavor that you are aware of or a topic of interest to our listeners? Email us at A-O-T-A at Breck.com. That's A-O-T-A at Breck, B-R-E-C-H.com. Did you know that you can also listen to Art on the Air anytime as a podcast at Lakeshore Public Media's website through Lakeshore's app or from NPR? Plus, it's available on demand from your favorite podcast website, including TuneIn, Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora, Apple Music, iHeartRadio, and many more. If you have a smart speaker like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple Siri, just tell to play Art on the Air to hear the latest episode. This is Alan Harrison, author of Scene Change, a new best-selling book on the subject of nonprofit arts organizations. And you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media 89.1 FM and on WVLP 103.1 FM. Thanks for listening. We would like to welcome Frances Jones to Art on the Air. Frances began writing poetry in high school. Poetry has woven in and out of her life. She raised a family, then went back to college to pursue a career in social work. While back in college, poetry revisited her briefly. Then she became a licensed Christian counselor. She retired from that in 2013 and began writing again. The culmination is a book of poems titled Thoughts for Pause and Reflection. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Frances. It's very nice to meet you. Hello. How are you, Esther? Very nice to meet you and Larry. So excited. Well, we're glad to have you here. And we're interested in your background. And you sent us the background. But we'd like you to tell your personal journey and story, where you grew up, what I call your origin story. So tell us how you got from where you were to where you are now. Well, I grew up in Chicago, Illinois. And I lived on the south side of Chicago. And from fourth grade through high school, I went to Catholic schools. And a lot of my – the woman that I am, I do credit the guidance that I received from the priest and the nun. Well, probably when I was in school, I didn't appreciate it as much as I do now. When I was in high school, I went to an all-girls school, and there was a boys' school across the way. And I can still remember when we had dances, and the nuns would be in the balcony. And at that time, and I do date myself, the nuns, you know, wore habits. And they would be leaning over the balcony, and my maiden name is Clark. And they would be sure to say, now, Frances, you need to make sure there is space between you and your young man. So therefore, I, you know – anyway, I lived through it. But those are memories that I can't help but chuckle now because things have changed so much in terms of what's acceptable and what isn't. Well, same with the nuns. Right. Yeah. And those dances, they always told you to leave space for Jesus, right? That's right. Exactly, exactly. I wasn't quite thinking about Jesus in those days because, I mean, I am a woman who is – you know, I've given my heart to the Lord. It's not that I wasn't a Christian, but, you know, I took Jesus for granted then, and I don't do that anymore. So I'm just saying, I'm going to be blunt with you. You know what I say to people that I am allowed to have some influence in terms of speaking into their lives? I wasn't always saved, just to let them know I'm very human and that, you know, I am certainly better for having lived as long as I have. And so let me get back to my story, as you asked, about my origin. My parents were divorced while I was still relatively young, and so my mother – now, remember, I did tell you that I was raised Catholic. My mother was a devout Catholic, and she had nine children, of which I am the oldest. And so I can tell you that I can still remember one of the things that really mattered to me as a young person. When you've got nine mouths to feed, my mom would, you know, make pancakes and bacon, and we could only have two slices of bacon. And I didn't like that too well, Larry. I said, when I grow up, I am going to have as much bacon as I want. I used to tell my mother that, and she just looked at me. But, you know, she did a really good job, I must say. Brave and revolutionary for that time, especially. Exactly. She was. She was, because, you know, I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but, you know, she was married twice. And my – well, let's just say, Mom, she did a really good job of raising us. I have a brother who is very prominent in Chicago, and he is the first African American that was appointed to ComEd, Commonwealth Edison. Anyway, so we're really proud of him. But Mom did a really good job. But what I'm saying is that perhaps she wasn't as good at selecting husbands. So we'll leave it at that. We won't go there. We'll let that be. And so what is that expression, let sleeping dogs lie? So we'll let that be. Anyway, so I went through high school. I did start out at the time in a junior college, but I met my husband, and that was the end of that. So I got married and had three children. My husband was in the military, in the Army. So we lived in Alaska. We lived in Washington State, and we lived in Idaho and Oregon. So those are all the Pacific Northwest. So I raised my children in that environment. There were not a lot of people that looked like us, but we took it in stride. And so while I was in college, remember you said to me, Larry, that I had gone back to – well, maybe the people didn't hear it, but I had gone back to school, and I decided that I would pursue a career in social work. One of the reasons is that once you have your master's degree, you can hang out your shingle. And so I did. I hung out my shingle, and for 21 years, I was a licensed Christian counselor. I will say it was more like 20 years, because for one year, I actually did social work, and I worked in a facility that provided out-of-home placement for children that needed to be adopted. So that was, you know, my foray into social work. But beyond that, I knew that I always wanted to pursue a service, but I wanted to counsel, and so I did. And my business was grace counseling, and I like to think I helped some folks. I have run into some people beyond the time in which I was working, and they've said nice things to me, so I might have done something good. So, Frances, was that – did you do this counseling in the Pacific Northwest or in the Midwest? No, I did the counseling in Idaho and Oregon. And so that was – it was an experience, and I really feel positive. I believe that it was a call on my life, because I have – I'm a people person, and I have a lot of compassion for folks that are struggling. I provided individual, family, and group counseling. I did a lot of marriage counseling, and I also, you know, helped people that were struggling with depression and anxiety and anger issues. And I always would weave, as much as I could, the word of God. So I didn't try to prophetize anybody, because that would have been inappropriate. But the people that came to me knew that I was a Christian counselor, and that was why they sought me out. So in – oh, let's see, I'm trying to think. My husband had a stroke in 2011, and I became very ill with something. I don't know, but it caused me some problems. So my daughter, who lived at the time and still does in Indiana, she came and spent about a month with me. And in that time, my mother asked if I would – my husband and I – if we would consider moving back to the area. And so we did. We moved to Indiana in 2013, and I – that was when I retired. We had been living in Oregon. We were about six miles from the ocean. It was so cool. But, you know, things happen. Life happens. And I – you know, I've been saying that I changed from living near the ocean to living on a golf course, where I live now. So where I am now, we are – our back area is on the eighth hole of a public golf course. I guess I've got vast vistas. Yes, exactly. It's really cool to sit in my sunroom and look out at the people playing golf. I have a collection of golf balls. And so, anyway, so we're moving toward Indiana, where I live at this point. But I want to just backtrack a little and say that while I was in – I was in undergraduate studies at Boise State University, which has the blue turf. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. Anyway, it was there that I began to write poetry again. And the – my English instructor was encouraging. But then, as I say, I had stopped and began to pursue my counseling career. So fast forward. I'm in Indiana. I'm retired. And I just felt the urge to begin writing again. And so I did. And I give Jesus all of the credit because I'm like a conduit. He would download. He'd wake me in the night. You know? I'd have to get up, find some paper, and, you know, get my glasses and a pen and start writing, which I did. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, on WVLP, 103.1 FM. I can read a couple of my poems, if you would like that. Oh, please. Please do. Okay. All right. I'm going to – let me read this one. It's titled, The Visit. It gives you reason to pause and think about the brevity of life. Welcome to our home. Guests are always welcome here. Our door is always open to those from far and near. A visit to our home, whether visitor or guest, with kindness and compassion, you'll receive our very best. Sometimes it's called a funeral home. Sometimes a funeral parlor. Whatever its name, our last remains repose in somber silence. All will pay a visit. It should come as no surprise. Our lives are brief and passing, but one day we all shall rise. And that's Frances Jones. Yes. Thank you so much. It certainly is. It certainly is. So, Frances, you know, you said you started writing first maybe in high school. Yes. But were you also interested in that in elementary school? But then when you started writing in high school, what were your poems like? Do you remember? Well, I was thinking about that – you know what? I have something. I just couldn't put my hand on it. I like to say that I'm so organized I get on my own nerves because, you know, when I can't find things. But anyway, I had wanted to find what I had written in a notebook all those years ago, but I wasn't able to find it. And so, yes, yes, they were, I feel, good. They were not downloaded by God – by Jesus, you know. But I'm just saying that they were not too bad. Would you like me to read another one? Yes, please. Yes. Okay. This poem is titled, Smile. A smile, a curving of the lips, its message warm and inviting. A smile is more than superficial. It reflects a heart condition. A smile is a message without words. Perhaps it seems to say, be blessed and have a good day. A smile can break down barriers. It can overcome offense. A smile can make us rethink what we thought at first impression by a change in one's expression. A smile is free. It costs at most a little facial muscle. Use it often. Use it well. Wear it like a banner. Delightful. Delightful. Besides you getting them downloaded, so to speak, was your experience in counseling, and of course many times you have to be very positive, also part of some of the inspiration or the guidance of writing these poems? As a matter of fact, that's a good thing you ask. I have just the poem for you. When you hear it, you'll say, oh, yeah, I get it. All right, let me just find it. Its title is Difficult People. I did have to help folks when they were either in a marriage situation or if, in fact, they were in a relationship that was difficult. All right, here we go. Difficult people make you tear at your hair. They need God's grace and continual prayer. Don't engage with these people. Let them rage, rant, and moan. As God's man or woman, we are spiritually grown. It takes two people to engage in a fight. Be a better person. Don't insist on being right. Step away from contention with family, friend, or foe. Angry people are not listening, just so you know. Be at peace with all others as much as you can. Leave difficult people in God's mighty hands. Excellent. Was that framed in your office? Well, not exactly. But I must tell you, I had a lot of literature that I did share with my clients to help them learn how to disengage. Don't bite the bait, you know. It takes a minimum of two people to be in conflict. And if you decide not to join, then I guess they're on their own. That's a very good thought. Do you understand? Oh, that's excellent. Do you understand what I'm saying? Oh, sure, if you don't engage, yes. But, you know, it's so hard because sometimes, you know, again, I mentioned don't bite the bait. So, anyway, as you can tell, I hope that I'm a friendly person and I hardly meet a stranger. So that works for me. And I really want to say that this is a singular honor to be a guest on Art on the Air. I'm excited. I really am. I said that earlier. And I want to tell you that I will be certainly promoting Art on the Air and letting folks know. This is a wonderful option for those that listen to radio shows. And I just can't tell you enough how pleased I am to have had this opportunity. Well, I want to say, Frances, you are so incredibly vibrant. What do you do other than writing? Because I don't think you sit down for very long normally. You know, I lead a Bible study. I take care of my mother who's going to be 96 on March 1st. I am a good friend, a loyal friend. I have lots of friends. I have, you know what, I have a major birthday coming at the end of this month. Do you want me to tell the party? Announce. Yes, announce. All right. I'm going to be 80. Oh, my gosh, 80 years young. Yes. And the reason I'm saying that is I know I don't look it. I suppose if I did, I wouldn't tell you. Well, no, you certainly don't. I take one of my things for living from the musical Pippin. I believe if I refuse to grow old, I will stay young till I die. And I agree with that sentiment. I refuse to grow old. I'll stay young till I die. Well, Sophia Loren said also one of the ways is no grounding when sitting down. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Well, I haven't been to the gym so far this year, but that's on my agenda so that I can stay agile and limber. So I'm going to do it. Excellent. Can you do another short poem? Absolutely, really short one. I'll find a really short one. Let me read. I want to read this one that I wrote to my husband. He has died in 2021. The title is Goodbye for Now. After decades of marriage, he left me alone. He transitioned to God in his heavenly home. When you love someone, you want their best. His body was weary and longing for rest. My arms are too short to contend with God, so I gave him up gracefully to God's greater plan. Once released from his suffering, I said goodbye to my man. I know his body is dead, but his soul lives on. He lives in my heart like a well-loved song. Goodbyes, at best, are difficult to say. I'll see him again in heaven one day. Oh, that's beautiful. It sounds like you chose well. Well, I did. He was a good man, a good husband, a good dad, and a good provider. So, anyway, I wrote that to him, even though he didn't see it. But, anyway, that was what I thought about him. And so, I just cannot say enough about Art on the Air. I'm now a big fan. Fan of yours as well. Yes. Thank you so much. Well, we want to remind our audience, thoughts for pause and reflection. There's 25 poems there by Frances Jones. You can find out information about it at highwaytotheheart.org. That's highwaytotheheart.org. There's a link on our website. And you can reach out to her, and you can also find out more information. Is there a second book in the making? Yes, there is a second book. I have two poems that are partially finished that I will be writing a second book. Sounds great. Thank you for asking. Thank you so much for coming on Art on the Air and sharing your wonderful poetry and your life journey. What an inspiration it is. Frances Jones and her book is Poetry, Thoughts for Pause and Reflection. Thank you so much for coming on Art on the Air. Thank you, Larry. Thank you. Thank you, Frances. It's been such a delight. Thank you. Yes, and you two are just great. Thank you so much. We'd like to thank our guests this week on Art on the Air, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout Northwest Indiana and beyond. Art on the Air is heard Sunday at 7 p.m. on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at lakeshorepublicmedia.org and is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Art on the Air is also heard Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP, 103.1 FM, streaming live at wvlp.org. If you have a smart speaker like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple Siri, just tell to play Art on the Air to hear the latest episode. Our spotlight interviews are heard every Wednesday on Lakeshore Public Media. Thanks to Tom Maloney, vice president of radio operation for Lakeshore Public Media, and Greg Kovach, WVLP's station manager. Our theme music is by Billy Foster with a vocal by Renee Foster. Art on the Air is supported by the Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We'd like to thank our current underwriters for Lakeshore Public Media, Macaulay Real Estate and Valparaiso, Boga Patrician, senior broker, and for WVLP, Walt Redinger of Paragon Investments. So we may continue to bring you Art on the Air. We rely on you, our listeners and underwriters, for ongoing financial support. If you're looking to support Art on the Air, we have information on our website at breck.com slash aota, where you can find out how to become a supporter or underwriter of our program in whatever amount you are able. And like I say every week, don't give till it hurts. Give till it feels good. You'll feel so good about supporting Art on the Air. If you're interested in being a guest or send us information about your arts, arts-related event or exhibit, please email us at aota at breck.com. That's aota at breck, b-r-e-c-h dot com, or contact us through our Facebook page. Your hosts were Larry Breckner and Esther Golden, and we invite you back next week for another episode of Art on the Air. Aloha, everyone. Have a splendid week. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. You're in the know with Esther and Larry, Art on the Air today. Stay in the know with Larry and Esther, Art on the Air our way. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you art, and show the world your heart.