Lessons with Scissors - Jeanne Marie Beaumont
In Lessons with Scissors, Jeanne Marie Beaumont teaches us that the past, which we convince ourselves we leave behind, will, in time, come back to haunt us. Or as she puts it, “Everything’s present leads to what’s passed.” Whatever she casts her eye on—be it her forebears, a baffling childhood friendship, or her father’s uneasy afterlife—she does so unflinchingly, with an intelligence that precludes sentimentality, and a fierce commitment to hard truths. For Beaumont, the self is mutable, yet consistent—as much a piteous, overcrowded clown car as a crumbling suburban home. What will you put on your bucket list, she asks, as those you’ve counted on—parents, pets, friends—are one by one taken away? To which she herself might warn: “touch the trophy—lose the revelation.”
—David Trinidad
ISBN 978-0-9976305-0-3
2024$18.95Jeanne Marie Beaumont is the author of four previous collections of poetry: Letters from Limbo (CavanKerry, 2016), Burning of the Three Fires (BOA Editions, 2010), Curious Conduct (BOA Editions, 2004), and Placebo Effects (Norton, 1997), a winner of the National Poetry Series. With Claudia Carlson, she co-edited The Poets’ Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales (Story Line, 2003). Her verse play, Asylum Song, had its world premiere in 2019 at HERE Arts in New York City. She has taught at the Frost Place, Rutgers University, the Stonecoast MFA Program of the University of Southern Maine, and at the 92nd Street Y. Jeanne Marie is also a visual artist who works in collage and assemblage. She has lived in Manhattan for over four decades. Read more at www.jeannemariebeaumont.com.
In Lessons with Scissors, Jeanne Marie Beaumont teaches us that the past, which we convince ourselves we leave behind, will, in time, come back to haunt us. Or as she puts it, “Everything’s present leads to what’s passed.” Whatever she casts her eye on—be it her forebears, a baffling childhood friendship, or her father’s uneasy afterlife—she does so unflinchingly, with an intelligence that precludes sentimentality, and a fierce commitment to hard truths. For Beaumont, the self is mutable, yet consistent—as much a piteous, overcrowded clown car as a crumbling suburban home. What will you put on your bucket list, she asks, as those you’ve counted on—parents, pets, friends—are one by one taken away? To which she herself might warn: “touch the trophy—lose the revelation.”
—David Trinidad
ISBN 978-0-9976305-0-3
2024$18.95Jeanne Marie Beaumont is the author of four previous collections of poetry: Letters from Limbo (CavanKerry, 2016), Burning of the Three Fires (BOA Editions, 2010), Curious Conduct (BOA Editions, 2004), and Placebo Effects (Norton, 1997), a winner of the National Poetry Series. With Claudia Carlson, she co-edited The Poets’ Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales (Story Line, 2003). Her verse play, Asylum Song, had its world premiere in 2019 at HERE Arts in New York City. She has taught at the Frost Place, Rutgers University, the Stonecoast MFA Program of the University of Southern Maine, and at the 92nd Street Y. Jeanne Marie is also a visual artist who works in collage and assemblage. She has lived in Manhattan for over four decades. Read more at www.jeannemariebeaumont.com.
In Lessons with Scissors, Jeanne Marie Beaumont teaches us that the past, which we convince ourselves we leave behind, will, in time, come back to haunt us. Or as she puts it, “Everything’s present leads to what’s passed.” Whatever she casts her eye on—be it her forebears, a baffling childhood friendship, or her father’s uneasy afterlife—she does so unflinchingly, with an intelligence that precludes sentimentality, and a fierce commitment to hard truths. For Beaumont, the self is mutable, yet consistent—as much a piteous, overcrowded clown car as a crumbling suburban home. What will you put on your bucket list, she asks, as those you’ve counted on—parents, pets, friends—are one by one taken away? To which she herself might warn: “touch the trophy—lose the revelation.”
—David Trinidad
ISBN 978-0-9976305-0-3
2024$18.95Jeanne Marie Beaumont is the author of four previous collections of poetry: Letters from Limbo (CavanKerry, 2016), Burning of the Three Fires (BOA Editions, 2010), Curious Conduct (BOA Editions, 2004), and Placebo Effects (Norton, 1997), a winner of the National Poetry Series. With Claudia Carlson, she co-edited The Poets’ Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales (Story Line, 2003). Her verse play, Asylum Song, had its world premiere in 2019 at HERE Arts in New York City. She has taught at the Frost Place, Rutgers University, the Stonecoast MFA Program of the University of Southern Maine, and at the 92nd Street Y. Jeanne Marie is also a visual artist who works in collage and assemblage. She has lived in Manhattan for over four decades. Read more at www.jeannemariebeaumont.com.
