This end
stains a
whole life a poison tide
set
loose in the last hour to seep through the
sketched frames that hold days distinct so that one hour ofloops and crossed coils can make of sixty
years one screaming notea toil of dread
that ends the day -- I’ll say it --
you choked yourself to death. And kicked loose a
spray of radium and bile to
backtrack
through your life, recasting, reframing strangling fine
days, our summers, our home, breaking hearts,changing the story, ruining the plot, obliterating all, reaching the line that sums
it up, “He killed himself,
you know?”
Published in
Oklahoma Review, May 2009
Photo - Michael Kleven
UPDATE Currently entering final
year of MFA. Working on thesis. I often write in persona and
working with these other voices, I have found certain liberties and opportunities. My recent poem,
"Scribe"(now "Scribbler") is one example of this. The mountain, speaker of the poem, can use elevated language and high emotion,
that the poet would never be allowed --in part because it would sound phony, insincere, annoying, self-indulgent. When a character is speaking, they can do what they damn well please. All they must do is speak in character
--remain a coherent whole. The mountain, I have invented, shrieks her pain. When she is wronged her perception of the insult is monumental. This allows facets of high drama, never, never allowed to
an ordinary person -- they'd appear a meglomaniac. Not the mountain... She is the mountain. Don't argue with her.
Sandra Kleven is a clinical social
worker who came to Alaska from Seattle in the early '80’s. She has worked for
almost thirty years in remote villages, at times in the aftermath of suicide or the death of young children. Her writing shows
the mark of trauma. Sandra Kleven’s poetry and other
writing has appeared inAlaska Quarterly
ReviewandTopic Magazine (NYC). She
writes regularly for Bethel,
Alaska’s DeltaDiscovery.She
is the author oftwo books, The Right Touch, a sexual abuse prevention
story book, the country’s bestselling prevention book for children, now
published in Korea and, next year, India and Holy Land, which includes a
dramatic monolog awarded an Honorable Mention at the Edward Albee Last Frontier
Theatre Conference (Valdez, Alaska). In 2006 and 2009, Kleven received Celebration Foundation grants for creative work.Her
submissions to the UAA/Alaska Daily News Creative Writing contest
have been chosen for recognition in categories of poetry and non-fiction. Currently an MFA student
in the University of Alaska, Anchorage,
Kleven received a 2009 UAA Graduate Student Research scholarship to disseminate
her work. She lives in Anchorage with her
husband of 42 years. Through her business, HeartWorks, Kleven supports emerging artists from
Alaska’s villages and beyond. HeartWorks
makes a regular donation to program building schools for girls in Afghanistan.
With Writers in Winter, 2008
Award Winning
The Right Touch: A Read-Aloud
Story to Help Prevent Child Sexual Abuse, 1999, Illumination Arts.
Alaska's painful heart
"Holy Land"
Alaska Quarterly Review, 2005
AWARDS 2006 and 2009, Celebration Foundation grant to support creative work. 2009, Graduate Student
Association, University of Alaska, Research Grant
PUBLICATIONS The Right Touch: A Read-Aloud
Story to Help Prevent Child Sexual Abuse, 1999, Illumination Arts. "Holy Land" Alaska Quarterly
Review, 2005
More...
Link to current issue of Oklahoma Review
"For Jon, Once My Brother"
Oklahoma Review, 2009
Current issue AQR
Current issue Topic
"Bad Rap: How to Stop Alaska's Teens from Killing Themselves" Kleven and Ulak Topic Magazine, 2005.
