When I first encountered Lissa Kiernan’s remarkable poem, and its accompanying soundscape, on the (now sadly defunct) Poetry Storehouse website, it immediately spoke to me, and I knew I had to make a video of it. Images from the public domain film “Marriage Today” (1950) seemed appropriate to its theme, which I took to be the plight of woman in a judgmental society. Luckily, Ms Kiernan agreed, and has used it as part of the online promotional material for her book “Two Faint Lines In The Violet” (Negative Capability Press, 2014)
Lissa Kiernan is the author of Two Faint Lines in the Violet, (Negative Capability Press, 2014). Her book-length braided essay, Glass Needles & Goose Quills: Elementary Lessons in Atomic Properties, Nuclear Families, and Radical Poetics, is forthcoming from Haley’s. Individual poems can be found in numerous journals and anthologies and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Along with her MFA from the Stonecoast program at the University of Southern Maine, Lissa holds an MA in Media Studies from The New School.”
Othniel Smith is a writer and filmmaker based in Cardiff, Wales, U.K. His films, mostly public domain mashups, are available to view at http://vimeo.com/othniel