Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver

When I read Lynne Jensen Lampe’s poems in Talk Smack to a Hurricane, I tried to put myself in the tiny shoes of a little girl being tumbled about by the mystery and uncertainty that accompanies her mother’s uprooted mental state after giving birth to Lynne.

The first year of life is a tender time, a period of bonding with one’s mother. The photo of Lynne cuddling with her mother reveals the intimacy that survived despite the tragic mental shift her mother endured after Lynne’s birth, the onset of a postpartum mental collapse that led to her commitment to a psych ward and separation from her newborn baby for a year and other intermittent commitments. I felt in these stunning poems their arms outstretching for each other. 

Lampe’s poems touch the heart of universal truth as she saw first-hand the treatment of women in psych wards and felt the shame and stigma associated with mental illness. The storm and wreckage challenge their story but love holds on. In “At the Other Hospital”, Lampe writes,

…….….Today 
she risks all for me. 
Today I know she loves me.
A white coat, a mengele, taps  
my shoulder. My Jewish mama 
bolts upright, growls
you. can’t. have. my. daughter.

The poems are masterfully crafted, economic in wording and powerful with story. The found poems, or erasure poems, which Lampe created based on a long letter her mother wrote the day after Lampe was born, reveal the layers of love in her mother”s heart. The last of the five erasure poems, “In the Treetop When the Wind Blows” reads,

The baby
          in spite of this
must miss
             me
    she                    makes little kitten noises
                      calling               and
                                    I want
                                      I                welcome the
                                             love

In all the poems, Lampe forages through what remains to keep her mother close and tucked in under a comfy blanket and to feel her mother brush her hair behind her ears once again.

Enjoy this reading of “Scrabbled” by Lynne Jensen Lampe.

The book can be purchased from the publisher, Ice Floe Press. The publisher writes a compelling and detailed review of Lampe’s book.