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1st appeared 16 September 1999 Phoebe Grigg -- Pharmacology by Day, Poetry by Night "Poetry is like a ray gun -- you can aim it at things that are hard to think about," says Phoebe Grigg when asked why she writes poetry.
Although she's always been artistic -- Grigg is also a singer and painter -- it wasn't until a friend introduced her to the work of beat poet Philip Whalen 15 years ago that she considered writing. "I had preconceptions about being a poet, like you have to be wild and wear a beret and that's just not me," Grigg says. What attracted her to Whalen's poetry was its "intuitive, non-linear" style. "I was so relieved to read his poems. I was trying to be logical and I just wasn't," says Grigg. This freedom of prose, as well as the use of language in unexpected ways, is what continues to fascinate Grigg. "Poetry is a way to let all the pieces just be there, like a description," she says. Her poems, which often delve into the psychology of family dynamics, are charged with emotion, with the senses of touch, taste and sight eloquently summoned: (what flavor were they?) or the deeper shade of my Sea Green crayon; creamed like milk, or an icecream soda, the waves weave lace in their rocky crannies.
Grigg is prolific in her writing, mostly because of her involvement in the UCSF group Poets on Parnassus, which holds weekly workshops and occasional readings. Her poems about current events led a friend to nominate her for the honorary position of Poet Laureate 2000 of San Francisco -- the post being vacated by famous poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Although she was not chosen as a finalist, Grigg can nevertheless be proud of her achievements. She has learned to overcome her shyness and now enjoys reading her poetry in front of audiences, and has had her poetry published in Bogg, Crazy Quilt, Dog River Review and other poetry journals. In 1992, a series of Grigg's poems called "Glass Wall" was published by Trout Creek Press of Oregon's Backpocket Poetry series of "chapbooks" -- a small pocket sized book of poetry. Although Grigg started writing poetry to make sense of her own life, she now hopes that her work might resonate with others. "I have the philosophy that if something I write touches one person, that's what it's about," says Grigg. Links: Selected poems by Phoebe Grigg David Watts -- Poet on Parnassus Source: Paula Murphy, Daybreak editor |
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Grigg,
an administrative assistant in the Department of Cellular and Molecular
Pharmacology at UCSF, says she usually writes a poem to make sense of
a feeling or event. "Usually I have a feeling that's bugging me or that
I can't describe. Then I try on different analogies to fit that feeling,"
she says. "If I write for a while, I'll get a couple of words that sound
kind of cool and it surprises me. Usually at some point it goes click."