One thing journalists and poets tend to have in common is a deep appreciation for storytelling and words. In a lot of cases, it’s that appreciation that sparked their literary careers. And for Beverly Stock, much of her professional life has revolved around those very things.
Stock was born and raised in the American Midwest, and for 20 years she worked as a freelance journalist. Her work has been published in periodicals nationally and internationally, including here in Canada. Stock also wrote feature articles for magazines, worked in corporate communications and public relations, and eventually opened her own boutique creative services agency. She even worked as a literary/author escort for a while.
Through her years of writing, Beverly has established a clear and distinct voice but until last year, she hadn’t published a book of her own. The Prayerful Poet is Stock’s debut poetry collection, and it’s made up of found poems derived from Christian hymns. Stock may have only published her debut collection last year but she’s no stranger to poetry. She's been writing poems for years and typically finds joy in extracting the poetry of everyday life.
Stock’s writing is described as “a delightful blend of wry candor, bright wit, and winking optimism,” and that optimism is central to The Prayerful Poet. Stock sought stillness and peace when writing her poems; she felt it necessary to contrast the tumult in her country during the last few years. During our conversation, we talked about the process of releasing a book during the pandemic, her poetic motivations, the similarities between journalism and poetry, we even mentioned “He who will not be named.” Hint, it’s not Voldemort.
I started by asking Stock how The Prayerful Poet came to be.
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I retired during the four years of the last administration. Everything we read and everything heard here was contentious, nasty, stupid and almost always incorrect. So I thought, what do I read during this. And I usually read fiction for pleasure but then I thought, what really brings me peace of mind is hymns. About 10 years ago my mother was in a care facility. It was a Lutheran care facility, and it had a beautiful chapel in the middle. My mother had aphasia, she couldn't talk, she had all kinds of deficits but was a very cheerful person considering the situation. She and I would go down to church and sing hymns. She would mouth the words without stutter, and she had aphasia, so to me, it was like some sort of minor miracle. It was so much fun to see my mother do that.
So, I thought I'm going to read through the hymns, and I really got inspired. And it turns out that almost every hymn that I read had all the elements of a poem, and every time I read a hymn, I felt something different. A different message or something so I wrote it down.
Did you write down the hymn or the message that you got from it?
I wrote down the message I got and the rhyme that I got and it carried on for quite a while, I was really inspired. I gave it to a couple of friends and they read it, some of them asked where they came from and a number of people really liked them. So I thought, I'll publish it.
When did you start putting the collection together?
I got the inspiration in 2019 and I started writing in the latter part of the year into the first part of 2020 then I sent it off to the publisher. The publisher was Elm Hill, a division of HarperCollins Christian publishing. And in March, I got a form letter that said, “Hi, it's been so nice dealing with you, but we've shut down.” This was my publisher. They were nice, they were cooperative, they had great communication. I was devastated but they were making it very easy for me, you know, I've never done this before. So they turned it over to another division of HarperCollins, and it missed its deadline. It was missing its ancillary publishing materials like postcards, and direct mail stuff. There were a lot of things that fell by the wayside.
But nonetheless, it came out. It was supposed to debut for May 12th or 16th last year, and ended up getting to me by about June. There was very little support as far as publicity, like putting it on their list because Elm Hill no longer had a list. It was an orphan. It was my orphan but nonetheless, it was an orphan. So then it limped out during the height of the pandemic. The designer and I sat together in my office and we looked at each other and I admired her cover. But it was less of a bonding kind of experience only because of the pandemic.
I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about what that process was like, of putting the book together for the first time.
Once I started writing, I got on a roll and just continued going on and on and on. It’s very much like that when I write anything. So I wasn't writing in categories, I was just writing as I was inspired. When I finally sat down and looked at all my material, there weren't chapters, so I divided it in half. And in the middle there's an interlude and this interlude is very important to me. My daughter is an occupational therapist, she has lots of friends who are speech therapists and the auditory aspect of listening to someone read a book is extremely important. It gives you the crackling sounds, the popping sounds, it brings it to life. I enjoyed that almost as much as writing, it brought it to life for me.
I liked it because it was peaceful reading. I liked it because there were no politics, and it was peaceful. It was peaceful reading that focused me, and it was peaceful writing that focused me. And I wanted to offer that to others. I was really tired of the cacophony that was going on, and many of my friends encouraged me to do it, as did my husband, which was nice and it felt good. I just thought, if I'm looking for something peaceful to read, perhaps others are too. So that's how I came about doing the book but the writing is something I've done all along. But boy, the reading of the hymnal poems was really inspiring. And I realized from reading a couple of articles that hymns were originally poems set to music. So, it was really bringing it full circle and that gave me some reinforcement. I really enjoyed it, and to have something that you worked hard on that you enjoy is a real reward.
In the front of the book, you say that the book was a challenge for you to write as a secular poet. How was it to incorporate religiosity into your writing?
It was relatively easy. I love being a poet, I love poetry but when I read those hymns they spoke to me in a poetic fashion. I'm not going to say that it was spiritual guidance but there was something that was showing me the way, it was powerful. My lights didn’t blink or any of those things but it captured my heart so I followed.
For people who aren't Christian, or who aren't religious, what do you hope they will be able to get from reading this book?
If you're not religious you probably don't go to church, you probably don't sing hymnals, you probably don't understand the wealth and depth of knowledge, or the history of the people who wrote these. The one that I enjoyed the most was William Cowper from the 1700s, he was the one that wrote “God moves in mysterious ways,” which is pretty familiar to any of us even if you're not religious. That kind of message is universal over time and it just found a place in me, and I identified with it. It gave me what I was looking for at the time, which was peace and quiet.
How did you go about choosing which excerpts to keep?
With found poetry, whether it's this kind of a different kind, is when you read something, and you're inspired by it, so you use part of that poem and you embellish it with what gives you, what comes from you after reading that poem. So it's your words with their words, whoever that might be, it might even be an unexpected source. My found poetry is based on religious hymns but a lot of people I think rotate through a set piece of hymns and don't really seek out older hymns.
You talked earlier about cacophony and that you wanted to write about something that didn't have to do with politics or any of the controversies, but is that something that you ever do or feel compelled to do?
Oh, no, no, no. However, I do have a website and there are three or four categories of poems. One is humour, one is classical verse, and one is everyday life. For me, poetry is about self-expression, it's about being inspired by the many things around me but it's also sharing a bit of entertainment, a little bit of amusement in rhyme. It’s usually something that is either playful or that honours something. I mean, I like to do a variety of things. Like I said, this is just the first book that I've ever written and I was inspired to do it but I am a writer of all kinds of poetry. So, it’s just whatever’s in me that comes out.
One of the things that initially made me interested in this project is the fact that you are a former journalist and a poet. Do you see any similarities between the two genres?
I do, in fact, especially when we talk about found poetry. Anyone can read something, like an article for example and be inspired. For example, I wrote an article about Chinese diagnostic dolls in the ‘80s. They are small, ivory dolls, of reclined, nude women and they were used because it used to be improper for a woman to show her body to a physician. So, you take this ivory doll, and with charcoal, you mark on the doll where it hurts. If she marked the head that could be a headache, an aneurysm, a sinus infection, a concussion. Then you take the doll, you give it to your lady-in-waiting, then she gives it to the doctor. The only form of touching diagnostics they had was they tied a thread around the wrist of the patient, slipped it through a slit in the curtains, and the doctor could hold the thread and feel the pulse.
This was for a biomedical magazine in Canada. And as I was talking to one of my poetic editors, I said, “There's one subject that I've never really seen any poetry about. And that's Chinese diagnostic dolls.” So I put together a poem. Because it came from clinical information it took a little longer for me to write, you know, to get the rhyming and sound. And he published it in the society of classical poets as a front-page piece some time last year.
So my normal writing and my feature writing of long ago is something that is integrated into my poetry. It gives me the idea. I can ride by a church sign and see the headline on the marquee, and that becomes a poem. I've listened to lyrics on the radio and all of a sudden there'll be a phrase that starts to fire. So, I’ll go home and I'll write it down. I might not look at it for days, but then ultimately I'll start back up, and it comes out. Creativity is a difficult thing to describe because it gets stimulated by a lot of things.
In the blurb of the book, you write that you're passionate about creating works that explore the joys, challenges, and surprises of everyday life. And I'm wondering if you could tell me more about that.
If you go to my website, as I said, there are three or four categories of poems. When there were political debates on television, I would come away with an acid stomach that reached my eyebrows and I immediately went to the computer, and I wrote. When I see someone's new baby, I'm particularly fond of babies, and there's a smell to new babies. The more we can bring and the more that I can bring joy or an experience to someone who wants to read my poetry, that's my goal. It’s not to downgrade everything I see or to talk about the bad, I talk about optimism. My dad, before he passed away, had a phrase that perfectly fit, “attitude is gratitude.” And that’s just what it is, there's so much life around us and you have to be grateful for what it gives you. The last four years didn't give me much.
I think we're too busy to look at the small things, to enjoy small moments, particularly when it comes to remembrance. I had a poem on my website called “Reward and Redemption.” Does that sound serious to you?
To me that either sounds like something that would have to do with a sports movie or it sounds like a rewards card and redeeming points.
Good for you! It was about S&H Green Stamps. I had a couple of people write in and they said it sounded very serious until I re-read it now it makes perfect sense. And it was about redeeming points for things like cooking vessels. It was about our fascination with rewarding our purchases. You know, it's ordinary moments that we don't often think have poetry in them. I don't think that many times we wait and see how much joy there is. So, that's where it comes from, it comes from the need to see the lighter side. The side, as my father would say, with gratitude. The joys and actions of everyday life, if you just look around you or listen or know it, there's so much material out there.
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I left my conversation with Beverly feeling energized and appreciative, ready to take stock of all of the small details in life that are worth writing about. Poetry is a great way to share observations about everyday life and we at The Soap Box Press have the perfect virtual venue for you to share your poetic musings with fellow literary lovers. Writers of all stripes are invited to share their work at our monthly open mic sessions, TSB First Friday’s which are hosted on Instagram Live on the first Friday of each month. Stay tuned to our feed to find out when you can sign up to perform at our next open mic. See you then!