Angela Narciso Torres: making do

The Melody or Witchcraft podcast interviews begin with a love for poetry, its craft, and a major literary ancestor: Emily Dickinson. I’m your host, Kathryn Petruccelli, a poet, workshop leader, Substacker, & former guide for the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. Listen in to hear about the concentric circles of past and present. Names or poetic references are fleshed out or linked to in the show notes if not in the moment. Thanks for being a listener! Rate us on Spotify HERE, or Apple Podcasts HERE.kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com for full show notes, links & photos. Angela Narciso Torres was one of those super prepared guests! She’d kindly listened to several episodes before I got to sit down with her and I got to benefit from both her deep thinking and her gorgeous typewriter collection! In Episode 24, Angela & I get into moving beyond grief, defining home, & she breaks down for us the idea of “bricolage” – making things from the scraps of what we have handy. (Recorded May 26, 2026) Angela Narciso Torres is the author of What Happens Is Neither, Blood Orange, and the chapbook, To the Bone. A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Warren Wilson’s MFA program, she has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, a BreadLoaf Fellowship, and the Yeats Poetry Prize. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Manila, she lives in San Diego and serves as reviews editor for RHINO. The Dickinson poem Angela chose: To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,One clover, and a bee.And revery.The revery alone will do,If bees are few. transcribed by Mabel Loomis Todd, (Fr 1779, J1755) Late BirdAngela Narciso Torres Count me among the noon risers who stumble,dazed and bad-haired, from the nest midday,pecking the crazed dirt for half-torn moth, pear’s white core, severed worm. I’ve never been one to trill at chink of dawn, to hop, skip, chirrup before full sun. I’m better at picking over crumbs, stitching a quiltfrom what’s left, remaindered, given upfor gone. Better at betting the careless will miss the best. Count me amongthe nightbirds who sip starlight, a guitar’sfading strains. Find me where moondust swirls in streetlamp glow and stray dogs sleep.What clings to the bone is most sweet. Other Dickinson poems mentioned: After great pain, a formal feeling comes—, the Diane Seuss episode of Melody or Witchcraft that covers that poem. Fact check, people, & concepts mentioned: Claude Lévi-Strauss – Bricolage From April 25, 1862 to Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Letter 261.“[Father] buys me many books but begs me not to read them for he fears they joggle the mind.” Czesław Miłosz Seamus Heaney Terrance Hayes’ American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin Diane Seuss’ Frank: Sonnets, Anne of Green Gables Read a scan of a first edition (1911) copy of The Secret Garden from the New York Public Library! Addie Mills series RHINO journal Poem-a-day of Angela’s poem “Late Bird” with an “about” paragraph where Angela explains more of where it came from and the connected Shakespearean sonnet 73. The tanka form Thank you for being a Melody or Witchcraft listener! Tune in Monday, November 9th for our final episode of Season 4 (Dorianne Laux). We’d love it if you were moved to sign up as a paid subscriber. There will be bonus material for paid Subscribers in 2027 and other benes you can take advantage of even sooner, like the workshop below - free for supporters! It’s just about time to renew the fees for the recording and editing platforms…your generosity is most welcome! These are hard times and sometimes perspective can make all the difference. The Cosmos" aims to introduce you to poets you love writing on the stars, the planets, the moon (is that still allowed??) and in the process writing about human lives, failures, desire, and loss. Check out the website or email montereyboundATgmailDOTcom. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe