Some Very Soft Days

by Margo Solod

A major collection of poems by Margo Solod. These honest, luminous and well-made poems deal with landscapes both geographical and emotional. They combine an open heart with powerful poetic craft.

84 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

About the author

I came to writing fairly late. That is, I did not grow up, as many of my friends did, knowing I had to write. There was so much to do – reading, swimming, horseback riding, riding bikes, reading, freeze-tag, staying outside in the summer until the streetlights came on, reading – who could choose just one thing?

Yes, I dabbled in writing at school; a few poetry contests as a child, and one brilliant 4th act to Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler in college where I turned that classic drama into a mystery. I still don’t understand why that version didn’t catch on and make me a million dollars. But after that class I put down the pen and picked up first a crescent wrench (theater lighting design), then a hammer (building sets, learning construction), and finally a chef’s knife (I prefer a 6” Henkel with a plastic handle. For the knife, that is. I never had a brand preference in hammers or wrenches).
Sometime in my thirties, I moved to a remote island to run an Inn and restaurant, and during one long lonely winter’s off-season, I began to write again, returning to my first love, poetry. This was back in the ancient era of typewriters and actual snail mail anchored by handwritten letters (even slower when sent and delivered on a ferry that only ran once a week). In this way I received what little “formal” writing training I have; thick brown envelopes of poems sent back and forth between myself and a few amazing teachers who were willing to try and teach me by mail.

Slowly my poetry improved, and I got bold enough to send work out: at first, individual poems to small literary magazines and then, as these gained acceptance with some regularity, chapbooks of themed poetry to contests. While searching for contests I found Flight Of The Mind, a writing workshop for women that ran every summer for two weeks in a monastery in Oregon. This workshop not only got me off my island, but into the company of friends and mentors who remain a part of my life to this day (in fact, I befriended the woman who would become my wife there).
Soon, I applied to and was accepted at the Vermont Studio Center, where I worked on my own, but surrounded by the creative energy of others. I published my first and second chapbooks and won a few minor awards. Eventually I came to the realization it was time to close down the Inn where I’d served as chef for so long, leave the island and begin working on career four, or maybe five. At a certain point you lose track.
During several of my previous careers I’d moved around a lot, and I’d decided that when I settled down I would try the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
And that, dear reader, is where the official bio picks up. I traded Vermont for Virginia Center for Creative Arts, an artist’s residency that has afforded me much time and space to create. I published two more chapbooks and a full length book of poetry, and then, seemingly, I was done with that genre. I haven’t written a poem since 2006. Next I turned my hand to creative non-fiction, and published a memoir of place dealing with my island years.

Now I’m working on a trilogy of ‘tween adventure novels, set on an island suspiciously similar to the one I lived on for so long. After I finish those, I think I’d like to try my hand at a YA novel.

If I had the temerity to give anyone advice about writing, it would be this: READ. Read everything, and anything. Then turn off the editor in your head (she takes up too much space anyway), and let your imagination … run wild. No telling where you’ll end up. So many ideas … why choose just one?