Susan Campbell and Christine Irving
Published: 2019-06-19
Total Pages: 104
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In Ping Pong Poems, Christine Irving and Susan Campbell create a living conversation that explores the poets' backgrounds and wide-ranging interests. In contrast to the acrimony and recriminations that seem to pervade our world, these friends exchange ideas clothed in striking metaphors-like friends meeting over coffee-one topic connecting cognitively to the next subject and then round again. In this collection, each poem acts as an inspiration for the next poem so that each is both follower and leader in a continuing round of mutual exploration. As the process unwinds and develops interplay, natural affinities are revealed, sometimes spiraling in surprising ways to reach the same ends from two very different directions.Ping Pong signals a willingness to play with words and to participate in our inner lives and with the world-and with each other! That's the heart of writing, isn't it, a tenet that we must keep alive and urgent, or else, as Marvin Bell writes in Segues, "all fall down." Dialoging has proved to be more than just a way to hone my craft. I am enchanted with the unexpected ways these dialogs move us through time and space. The intimacy inherent in the conscious and unconscious revelation of our authentic selves touches me deeply. I am grateful for Susan's faithful responses and the amazing breadth of her knowledge, which continues to expand and enrich my understanding of our amazing world. We live a fair distance from one another and rarely find time for a face to face leisurely conversation. Dialog allows us to cultivate friendship in a new way. The longer I live, the more I enjoy having friends with whom to share a deep appreciation for the workings of nature and the miraculous ever-unfolding mystery of creation. Such friends are precious beyond rubies. Susan is no exception.