The Ghosts of Gold
(Dec. 6, 2022)
An Introduction …
The visceral experience of understanding – way down deep – the significance of baring my soul in verse is never going to be anything other than akin to climbing a mountain. And this is some kind of monumental ascent; like making my way up the legendary Kilimanjaro or to the peak of Denali.
Oh, don’t let me give you the wrong idea: I’m no mountain climber. I’m a poet. I’m a writer. My metaphorical mounting of the slope is an effort to reach the reader or listener with my words. Y’all are held in very high regard by yours truly! Also, the desire to discover more about myself hangs around in my head.
Many of you will have noticed my social media posts often carry the hashtag #popartpoetry. If you’ve wondered why, it’s because I regularly insert a selfie or pic I’ve taken of a moment from my life (or the people in it) to assist in conveying the feeling of the poem. As someone raised on movies and TV, it doesn’t take but a second for my mind to recall a moment from some famous or maybe infamous scene. Understanding words and images is paramount to communicating. And even though the image is secondary to the words residing over top whatever I decide to use, I want people to understand I’m seeking or possibly reaching to better realize my intentions and figure-out from where I’m coming…and going. So, for this reason, you’ll see me quite frequently looking out from behind my words. I don’t know for sure, but maybe I’m hiding behind the words and thoughts or perhaps the images make it feel as if I’m directly speaking to you.
Exploring how I present excerpts from my poetry is almost as vital as getting to a deeper reflection on what I’m trying to say. Now, wait a minute, never, ever, do I want to give away too much. I want my words to be for you; for you to find meaning on a personal level. However – judging from your reaction to my first collection In Black and Light and my little explainers preceding each poem – it certainly seems y’all enjoy knowing more of the impetus behind my words.
So, with this thought in mind, where did I get this title The Ghosts of Gold?
Well, in truth, the same as with a great many of my poems, the title had been in my head for quite some time; floating around in hopes of making a solid landing on paper. And it happened in mid-October 2022.
Buffy Lawson – my friend whose golden voice has shared a duet with Neil Diamond and written songs recorded by the likes of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers – invited Ben and me to participate in a picnic made-up of artists interested in sharing what we do and how we do it. My beloved Ben would create one of his extraordinarily beautiful digital paintings and I would write a new poem. Another friend was attending the picnic, and it was none other than the effervescent, incomparable writer Donna Ison. We’ve known each other 25 years and when she smiled at me a calming wave crashed in my brain and I understood there was total safety in this space. And this was the sign I needed to say (to myself) I could create in just the two hours we’d been given to do so! Also, I learned these celebration picnics were the brainchild of legendary singer-songwriter Michael Johnathan of the famed Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour. And it was here, hanging out amongst the vines of the stunningly beautiful vistas of Chenault Vineyards in Richmond, Kentucky, that my words came to claim the verses that would become the title poem – “The Ghost of Gold.”
Later, reflecting more on the poems I intended to include in this collection, my mind answered its own question; a riddle I’d been struggling with for over a year. What were these pieces all about? And the answer is loss.
The loss of self, love, family, safety, sanity, life, time, value, innocence, motivation, affection, communication, touch, direction, and more. All these things…more valuable than gold. And all these things – when lost – leave behind often endless thoughts of how something so incredibly valuable is no longer tangible. An emptiness where once there was great weight or meaning or benefit. How something so important as to be incalculable is now lost and possibly never to return. Truly, all this loss makes me think of ghosts. And, if left in an environment of no protection, I thought about how gold dust is simply carried away by the wind. This prized possession is gone like the fleeting image of a ghost.
So, to me, these poems came to represent “ghosts of gold.” So many words (like thousands of ghosts) making up the lines; remains of something once solid and rather near impossible to destroy. And now, what is left behind is best described as ephemeral.
This was all a great deal to process: poems about loss. I needed to let the thought settle in my mind. Getting comfortable with the idea of no longer having what once meant so much is for certain an uncomfortable truth.
And another truth is how writing poetry takes an enormous amount of thought. I mull over the lines and look at them from a dozen different perspectives. I use poetry as my therapy. I think about how these word puzzles so often sooth my own tendency of “fading to black” when things go south. I long for my words to connect to you; to give you hope and reassurance that others feel as you do. And all the time now, I’m learning how my words touch readers from across the internet. Maybe it’s something in the way I’ve constructed a line or phrased a feeling. In my verses someone out there finds greater meaning; they take my poems and assign personal significance to their situation. And for me this is the greatest moment! What a natural high it is when someone comments how one of my poems sums up what they’ve experienced, or they send a message to say something I’ve written brought them comfort or closure.
So it is, within the “writing labs” of social media, that I’ve tested excerpts from many of the poems included here. Your enthusiasm and encouragement have fortified my feeling of right now being the time to get this book in your hands. My words are your stories every bit as much as they’re my own. These poems were written for y’all!
Thanks so much,
Clem
Please note that Clem Stambaugh’s books are copyrighted and may not be reproduced in any form without his permission.