“Rare Yellow Bird”

Anita Beckstrom is a master of distillation.
But rather than setting up a secret still on the back forty to make corn liquor, she distills language. Consider this poem in her new chapbook, Rare Yellow Bird:

Passion
when the lust for books
makes you a promiscuous reader
don’t judge a book
even though it lies on the bed
with its cover open

“I like to be concise,” Beckstrom said, “pare it down, eliminate words I don’t need. Be succinct.” She laughed. “It’s funny because I’m a talker, blab on and on, but not when I write poetry!”
In her quest for spare expression, she typically abandons punctuation and capitalization, relying on a poem’s appearance on a page to direct the reader. Not surprisingly, the poetry of ee cummings has influenced her work.
The sixty-some poems she chose for her collection were written during the past ten years. The pieces follow a chronology, beginning with her childhood:

I Created A Six-foot Giraffe
From Cardboard

declared myself an artist
at age seven

later hauled around
a lot of heavy paintings
picture frames
art supplies
easels

when I became a poet
my colors could be carried
in a very
small
package

When Anita Anderson attended the Milwaukee State Teachers College (now UW – Milwaukee), her focus was on art. Later she illustrated a book that her sister wrote about their mother’s girlhood adventures on Chambers Island, and a children’s book written by Keta Steebs. She taught art classes, ran art galleries, and as a member of the Wisconsin Regional Artists Association earned awards for her artwork.
Her interest in poetry began in fourth grade at the encouragement of her teacher. As Anita wrote humorous verse, “Kids wanted me to read my poems,” she recalled, “because they made them laugh!”
She wrote light verse as an adult, too, sometimes sketches for members of the Sister Bay Women’s Club to perform. While she no longer writes rhyming poetry, she still reveals her wit and sense of humor. “I like to end with wry twists,” she said.
Beckstrom began writing poetry seriously in the early 2000s when she moved to the Meadows and took classes offered by poets Barbara Larsen and David Jones. At their encouragement, she joined the Wallace Group of poets who critique one another’s work.
“Poetry works better in my life now,” she said, because of the physicality of art and the need for supplies. “It’s something you can do more easily,” she added, because “my colors can be carried in a very small package.”
She brings an artist’s eye to her writing, with the lean evocative language of haiku and the expansive reflection of Whitman, another poet she admires:

When October Dances

she wears a burgundy dress
her red hair flutters with yellow ribbons
orange slippers decorate her feet
coral scarves about her neck
catch in her twiggy fingers
her scent is earthy wet leaves
she whirls and twirls into a strip tease
leaving a heap of colored tatters

she borrows darkness from the forest
comes back as a witch on Halloween
for the last dance

The autumn landscape of Sister Bay speaks to her as “all eight sides of my family settled in Door County way back,” she said. When Anita was three, her parents moved to the Milwaukee area, but then returned after her father opened Masterfreeze, a refrigeration manufacturing concern in downtown Sister Bay, housed in what later became the Walkway Mall.
As a teenager Anita worked in the office for her father and met her future husband; returned from military service, Lenny Beckstrom also worked there. They married, made a life on Beach Road (in a house that he built himself) and raised three daughters. Linda, Sally, and Bette assisted Beckstrom with the publication of her book.
When her oldest daughter graduated from Gibraltar High School in 1971, Beckstrom began working as an audio-visual aide in the school’s library, a position she held until her retirement in 1992. She discovered Sylvia Plath during this time, another poet who affected her writing.
Even when Beckstrom’s subject matter is serious, she can smile at herself, as in the poem about her teenage years:

I Must Have Had a Reason

to wear that giant red poppy
pinned to the side of my face
on that first day of high school

perhaps to draw attention away
from the flat chest
of a skinny girl
with big eyes

or from the tight new perm
when the style was for
sensuous long hair
with fluffy bangs

or maybe it was a sign
like in some south sea islands
that I was definitely
available

Or the one about her present life:

Five Thirty at The Meadows

slowly
down the hall
cane and walkers
squeaking
shining
dandelion-down hair
curly
wavy
straight-cut
kapok bursts from milk-weed
down to dinner
what’s on the menu
don’t remember
everyone is smiling anyway
won’t have to wash dishes tonight

Beckstrom drew the illustration for the cover of Rare Yellow Bird; the title is taken from the poignant final poem:

Brilliant White Lies

like water in a sieve
like circles of smoke
curling away in wisps
at least I still have him

I press his iceberg hand
and ask how he feels today
sometime all right
sometimes a shrug
mostly he is tired

my fun-loving jokester
hides in shrubs of silence
fleetingly peeping out
like a rare yellow bird

Some of the poems in the collection have been previously published in Peninsula Pulse, Free Verse, Museletter, and the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Calendar. Her verse both surprises and delights, and sometimes makes unsettling universal connections. The book may be purchased at Passtimes Books in Sister Bay or by contacting the poet via email at [email protected]