The writer and poet Carolyn Gammon discusses her recent collection On Her Own Terms: Poems About Memory Loss and Living Life to the Fullest (Harbour Publishing, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

On Her Own Terms: Poems on Memory Loss and Living Life to the Fullest by Carolyn Gammon (Harbour Publishing, 2021). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: On Her Own Terms

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

A remarkable poetry collection recently published, another in a series of collections we’re featuring as part of National Poetry Month is the one from writer Carolyn Gammon: On Her Own Terms: Poems About Memory Loss and Living Life to the Fullest. In this collection are poems that confront the memory loss of Carolyn’s mother, Frances Firth Gammon. But it’s more than that. As we read in the book, Carolyn’s mother led a full and fascinating life; she co-founded The Fiddlehead. We see glimpses of the later, as we see daughter reflect on her mother’s role in the family, and what she did before she had a family. The poems reveal the intimacy of mother-daughter relations, as well each poem ends with dialogue from Carolyn’s mother, giving her voice. The book is often funny. It also shows us that though Carolyn’s family experienced her mother’s memory loss, it gained something. We’ll talk about that and more. Carolyn Gammon is the author of Lesbians Ignited, Johanna Krause Twice Persecuted, and The Unwritten Diary of Israel Unger. She was born and raised in Fredericton, and lives in Berlin, Germany, where she joined me in early April. This book is from Harbour Publishing. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Carolyn Gammon; Ms. Gammon, good morning.

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