Jean H. Baarson

Asidelines Jean H. Baarson

I've always loved words, as much for their sound as their sense, being read to, reading, theater: the spoken word represented in action. At college I minored in English Lit., learning about poetry academically. In adulthood my main focus, aside from family, was music, as a violinist. Not until my seventh decade did the 'poetic bug bite', likely abetted by my 'musical ear'. At first writing in the modernist, free-verse style seemed 'unformed', chopped-up prose: words, phrases, scattered vertically down the page. Where was the artistry? Creative challenge? "Words Within A Title" suggests my initial 'gameplan': words in the text formed of letters contained in its title. "Asidelines" contains a few rhymed poems, such as narratives and ballads, also a few in classic forms and meters. But most are structured by sound and rhythm. The book is arranged according to subject categories: "AVA", Ballads, Biography, Commentary, General, Local History.