Lucia Blinn captures history in poems to late husband

The poem calls our world a bizarre one, not a brave one. It talks of shootings and global warming, terrorism and the presidential election.

The way Lucia Blinn reads it, though, is soothing. It’s as if she’s reading a book to a child. She says she writes for herself, but this poem is for her late husband, Marty.

It’s called “Memo to Marty 2016,” and it recaps political, cultural and personal events that Blinn’s late husband has missed since the previous “memo” she wrote him in 2013. He died in 1993, and Blinn wrote her first memo to him in 2004. That memo recalls 9/11, the O.J. Simpson trials, Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ death and Martha Stewart’s stock trading scandal.

These memos, along with two others, are in “Memo to Marty,” her fifth book of poetry, which was published in the spring. The book contains other poems that she’s written throughout the years, as well.

Blinn spent her career in advertising in New York and Chicago. She knew she’d burn out one day. Advertising is a young person’s game, after all, she said. Instead, she decided she would write.

“You know, writing is a huge satisfaction for me,” she said. “I mean, I made my living writing advertising, and now I’m writing for myself, which is just a terrific blessing. But sharing my work is a huge part of it as well.”

Blinn didn’t plan to be a poet. Yes, she had written poems for other people for special occasions, but it wasn’t until she attended a poetry workshop after retirement that the “aha” moment hit her. She calls writing poetry the career after the career.

“Retiring to nothing is certainly not an option, and the fact that I had this craft to turn to has made a huge difference in my life,” she said.

Blinn’s ideas come from the world around her.

“It was such juicy material that I thought this is a way to contain it,” she said, “to put it in a memo to somebody who isn’t aware of all these interesting things that have happened. So it was a lucky literary conceit.”

Each memo crafts the briefest of history lessons for Marty Blinn. Cultural, political or personal, Lucia Blinn made sure to include important details since her husband’s death. From the iPhone craze and the evolution of technology to tightened airport security and e-cigarettes, Blinn’s memos flow swiftly through the years.

“There’s a whole history since 2004,” she said. “Twelve years of what’s been going on this country, which is plenty.”

Blinn said her earliest memory of writing is from fourth grade when she won a poetry contest. Today, she spends time with two writing partners, fellow Longboaters Pat Owen and Marelyn Oberman. The three say they find comfort in writing.

“It’s really nice to get lost in writing,” Owen said. “When you’re focused and when you’re part of a creative process, you’re involved in it. You’re not focused on other things.”

The trio gathers at Oberman’s house. The chatter is rare. Writing is abundant. Distractions can’t permeate their minds. They compare it to having a workout or walking partner.

“The quiet and just being around another person or persons that are devoted to just the solitude of writing their thoughts, it’s sort of a luxury because you don’t have (a lot of) down time or quiet time,” Oberman said.