Aspiring artist Christine Hall is an amazing poet who can make a person feel many things with a few simple words.
Ms. Hall was born into a creative family. “I was born into a family of singing, dancing, Model T restoring, artistic lunatics. We belonged to a religion my parents joined to repress their wild instincts, and it prompted me to get creative in expressing myself.”
Many people draw on their childhood experiences for creative insight. Others draw on traumatic events as a way to move through the pain and into the light. Ms. Hall drew, in part, on her up-bringing. “We were poor as dirt, living in a rusted tin can trailer, and I went to the mountains and creeks, or gobbled up science fiction to feel enriched. In school I was odd kid out, and it was the poetry lessons that perked me up the most. I began writing in first grade. My mother sang made up songs constantly, and I picked up the habit, dropping the melodies in my teens.” Even discussing her up bringing, Ms. Hall has a way of evoking imagery that is hard to find in the world today. You can almost see the trailer, the mountains, and feel the passion for poetry that Ms. Hall discovered at a young age.
Throughout her life, Ms. Hall as written poetry. In this day and age, this is a dying medium that should be revived and Ms. Hall has the talent to contribute to this revival. In 2012, self-published, Waking Up god, her first book. She began doing spoken word work regularly at all of the large performance poetry venues in Nashville. “One of my pieces won a space on Nashville buses for Metro Arts Poetry in Motion 2013. I have another book’s worth of poems I’m preparing to publish.” Ms. Hall’s talent can only be described as imagery in motion. Below is an example.
16 & Homeless
Looking like a Modigliani painting has its advantages
especially in Northern California, you can sleep in walls
lie forgotten in a closet
Many men will want to have you, when your existence is to attract
the attention of one girl who by some accounts looks like you
but she does not look like a Modigliani painting, and in her art studio, as you
scrub to remove the scummy layers try not to get too wet, or let on that
you’d sleep anywhere tonight, except in a bed
You won’t have to beg for food as there is a place for you if not at the table
then propped on a bench outside the restaurant
and those who ever took ownership might fear you’ll be stolen
while you rest knowing, you cannot steal a gift
You can contact Ms. Hall at marigoldpie@gmail.com or on her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ChristineHallisapoet. Photo by Rebecca Adler