Kelly Luce’s Comments

I don’t often write poetry, but when I do it’s usually a love poem. Such is the case with this group. “Another Night Drive” is the earliest poem among these, written in 2006 after I’d moved to a cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains to focus on writing and to get my shit together as a young person. Corny as it sounds, I see the poem as a celebration of myself, my independence, and the first car I ever owned.

I wrote “Walking with Jun” to make sense of a friend who makes sound installations. I noticed that he was always snapping his fingers or clapping, testing the surrounding space for interesting sonic effects. He explained that music is art in time; one listening experience is never exactly the same as the next. Embracing the ephemeral—in art, in relationships, in nature—is not an easy task, and, re-reading this poem, I think it was written as a celebration of not just human connection, but of ephemeral experience in general.

“North Rim Love Song” is the only thing I’ve written that felt like it came from outside myself, as if I were channeling it. I was visiting the Grand Canyon, couldn’t get a past relationship out of my mind, and the natural beauty of the canyon magnified my thoughts. The opening line came into my head and the lines just kept coming. I didn’t have a pen, so I turned my camera to video mode and muttered the words so I could write them down later. The last couplet was the only bit that came after, during revision, and I’m still not happy with it. (Oh, the guy from the past relationship—I’m going to marry him this summer.)

“Enterprise” is a story about meeting someone of enormous magnetism in a strange, new place. It’s about a physical journey and the way small details suddenly take on significance when you’re in that heightened state of discovery.

“Outside Joshua Tree” is, again, strongly informed by a location. Believe me: there’s a place in the desert where magic happens.

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