Phoebe Newman, Three Poems from Ruby

Phoebe Newman

The poet Phoebe Newman reads three pomes from her book "Ruby".   These three poems were written when Phoebe lived in New Mexico.  In these pomes she gives voice to three rural women. There is abuse, there is endurance, there is a justice in first poem "Solidade".  There is the selective loss of memory from aging, the loss if independence of the old and there is dignity in the poem "Terraphellia".  The last poem she read is "Ruby" who calls her alter ego or her evil twin, there is the cattiness of a gossip with a begrudging admiration.

Phoebe Newman mixes humor, pathos, observation so clear it can be touched, into voices who speak a truth to themselves and to the rest of us.

Phoebe Newman read from four of her books in April in McMinnville.  Meadowlake Studios filmed her reading and put together a 45 minute show that aired on  McMinnville Community Media in the spring.