Intro (00:01)
I'm David J. Bauman, and this is In Three Poems, the podcast where we read a little poetry with poets at various stages of their careers, and we get to know them a little bit in the course of those three poems. Today's guest is a writer local to me here in central Pennsylvania. Justin Strasser's debut collection, Those Who Wait, is a collection of 147 poems written from the period of 2005 to 2025.

Strasser is an award-winning journalist at the Daily Item in Sunbury, and here I am talking with Justin about those who wait.

David J. Bauman (00:35)
one of the things about this that I love on this podcast is I get to talk to poets from all over the place. I've had people on the West Coast, people on the East Coast, people in the Midwest. And one of my big joys too is talking to some local poets near me in a season. And I have one of those with us today, Justin Strasser. welcome to the podcast, Justin. Thanks for being here.

Justin Strawser (00:58)
Thanks, David. I'm excited to be on.

David J. Bauman (01:00)
I love the cover of your is this your first poetry collection?

Justin Strawser (01:05)
Yes, this is my first poetry collection. And I'm glad you mentioned the cover because I am in love with it as well. My sister in law, she's a local graphic designer,

David J. Bauman (01:15)
Yeah.

Justin Strawser (01:16)
and she took my vision and just ran with it and I think it's it's it's more than I could have imagined. And she has a couple sketches in the book as well, as long as some other people. but yeah, the cover is very beautiful and I'm very happy with it.

David J. Bauman (01:29)
And am I getting this right? It's those those who wait.

Justin Strawser (01:33)
Correct.

David J. Bauman (01:34)
what has it been like today? You've been very busy. you've been all over the place. I've been seeing it on social media, doing readings here and there. In fact, later this evening, you have an open mic

so thank you for taking some time to talk to me during this. what has it been like

putting out a first publication like this and doing all these readings?

Justin Strawser (01:53)
I self published back in January. and you know the the benefits of that is you know you get to control pretty much everything, but you know, the detriment is you know you don't have the promotion, you don't have the

the backing of a big company or anything like that. So

David J. Bauman (02:08)
Mm-hmm.

Justin Strawser (02:09)
all that promotion and all that

Advertisement and that falls on the author.

David J. Bauman (02:14)
Yeah.

Justin Strawser (02:14)
And so early in January, I said to my wife, I'm gonna have to start doing these poetry open mics. We gotta start finding them. I gotta start planning some stuff.

and so I I started organizing. I had a big book launch at Dagenstein Library and at the end of January, and then I started looking up places that had open mics and

I'm gonna be honest with you, David. There's they're few and far between. There's

David J. Bauman (02:37)
Mm-hmm.

Justin Strawser (02:39)
there's Williamsport has some at Otto Bookstore. and it just so happened Jessica Nirvana Ram, Bucknell

David J. Bauman (02:46)
Yeah.

Justin Strawser (02:46)
Stadler Center, I believe. She's with the Stadler

David J. Bauman (02:48)
Mm-hmm.

Justin Strawser (02:48)
Center. She was hosting a couple in Lewisburg, and that was about it.

David J. Bauman (02:54)
Yeah, there's

there's the River Poets, I think, in Bloomsburg. Yeah.

Justin Strawser (02:57)
I've been up to River Poets as well.

I would look for open mics that specifically said, All acts welcome or we welcome poetry

David J. Bauman (03:04)
Yeah.

Justin Strawser (03:04)
too. So I was headed I went up to Bloomsburg for a couple open mics there and I was the only poet. So

David J. Bauman (03:10)
Well,

that's the other thing. I think it being tough being sort of in this rural area compared to one of the cities,

Justin Strawser (03:16)
Yeah.

David J. Bauman (03:16)
where we don't have the KGB bar n downtown or, you know, some of the some of the other great places to read. and so it's a lot of traveling to do that.

Justin Strawser (03:24)
It is. Yeah.

I I've I went to Hagen's one Thursday evening, which is

David J. Bauman (03:28)
Yeah.

Justin Strawser (03:29)
in the middle of nowhere, I think in the coal region, there is a ice cream shop and one of the managers was having an open mic there for poetry and w my wife

David J. Bauman (03:39)
Wonderful.

Justin Strawser (03:40)
and I went out and it was just us two and I think four other people, so we had out we did multiple readings with everybody, so

David J. Bauman (03:44)
Ugh that happens. But you know what?

That can happen eve even in New York City the Market Street Library. I read there one time and almost everybody that was there was either a reader or the spouse or

Child

of one of the readers.

So sometimes I don't know why that's so tough at libraries. I mean, being a librarian myself, we found a lot of times we do almost a better reading if we host it outside of the building at like the local pub or something. You know what I mean? and we're looking at doing some things like that, like some adult story time kind of open mic kind of things.

Justin Strawser (04:17)
That'd be fun.

David J. Bauman (04:18)
Yeah. But I did get to meet you then at the university was partnering with us.

we had done like a local authors fair but now moving it into a full blown book festival. And so having sixteen authors on the commons right outside the library was awesome back in March. So thank you for being there. That's when we got to meet face to face.

Justin Strawser (04:35)
That that was a great

event and I met a lot of really cool people at that event.

David J. Bauman (04:39)
And I think it's tough this sort of thing. we've talked to people who are traditionally published or self published or haven't published a book at all. And I see that same kind of difficulty because a lot of the publishing these days, if it's not with one of the big publishing houses, of course, then it's your other choices are small press publishing, or

Or the self-publishing. And even with small press publishing, a lot of those small presses, you know, they don't have the resources. They're maybe run by a couple of people, So that marketing thing, there's a lot to that, you know. And so I I just I've been inspired by your energy and I I appreciate you doing it.

Justin Strawser (05:12)
And I I've been fortunate enough too that once I started asking around, more people would say, you know, so and so does this or so and so does that 'cause when I when I went to the Priestly Library, there were no, I'm sorry, not the library. When I went to the Priestly Chapel back in

David J. Bauman (05:28)
Yeah.

Justin Strawser (05:29)
January, there were a few people there that directed me to different people and one of those people was I was directed to you. So they

David J. Bauman (05:38)
great.

Justin Strawser (05:38)
They

said they said David Bauman was starting this in three poems podcast. Here's a way to get a hold of So I was very excited to to contact you and other people started reaching out as well.

David J. Bauman (05:48)
Yeah, that's I'm

I'm so glad they gave you gave you my name in the podcast

to go to a local thing It's better than it's better than sitting at home, although that's tempting sometimes, especially since the pandemic, that was really hard for me to get back out there again.

Justin Strawser (06:02)
Yeah. And there are

a lot of talented people out there that don't have books or they don't and they're not published.

David J. Bauman (06:06)
Yeah.

Justin Strawser (06:06)
They've they've never put anything in any magazines or literary journals or whatever. And they get up there to read and I am just blown away by the amount of talent and and

David J. Bauman (06:16)
Mm-hmm.

Justin Strawser (06:16)
just beauty that they have in their words.

David J. Bauman (06:18)
And it's a fun sort of thing to do too, because then you can test out some new material at a place like that.

Justin Strawser (06:22)
Yeah, yeah.

David J. Bauman (06:23)
So normally the way this podcast goes, instead of me talking too much, is we read some poems, and one of the things is

I get to read the first one,

Justin Strawser (06:32)
this is this is the podcast special announcement. I love your voice. I love your voice.

David J. Bauman (06:40)
thank you.

Justin Strawser (06:40)
I I think you have such a great reading voice. and I'm excited to hear my poems come out of your your

David J. Bauman (06:49)
now I'm really gonna be nervous. I'm nervous before you every one of these. But thank you. I appreciate that. Well, the first poem that we're gonna look at then is from it's also f it's from the book,

Justin Strawser (06:59)
Yes.

David J. Bauman (07:00)
Those Who Wait, and it's called Tree Bark. this kind of spoke to me and we can talk about why, but let's just jump into the poem. Tree Bark. When I drive by the place where you died.

I notice the tree that took your life is still standing, and the bark where your car hit has never grown back. After sixteen years the evidence of your death has never gone away. I say out loud, good. The tree that killed you should not be allowed to forget the terrible thing it did when it snatched you away. I hesitate because I am also empathetic. I too

Know what it's like to always remember what happened and to still bear the marks of your passing.

I

Justin Strawser (07:48)
Thank you for reading that.

David J. Bauman (07:50)
thank you. It there's a poem that I was in my first chapbook one of the poems was about a dear friend of mine who passed away actually in a hospital bed. But I used the metaphor of going by and seeing those crosses along the side of the road.

you know, that people put up and and saying, you know, that's not how I would wanna remember you.

And yet when you see like the marks on the tree, I know one of the things they always tell you in poetry class is not to anthropomorphize things too much, you know, that don't have but yet the metaphor is is part of it, you know. And you're just being so I think honest as a person in grief. Sure, it's not logical to blame the damn tree, but you can't help it, you know. What it was this I'm I'm taking, and if it's

Too much to ask, that's that's fine. But I'm taking this is a real situation that it's based on.

Justin Strawser (08:39)
Yeah, yeah.

This is I I had a friend at the time, sixteen years ago, but we'll say two thousand eight is is was the year time frame. and she was a close friend. we we got to know each other in high school and sort of drifted apart for a while and then in two thousand eight we started to get to know each other again and she

was driving one day, not very safely, and left the road and hit the tree.

David J. Bauman (09:06)
Mm.

Justin Strawser (09:06)
and it was very, very close to her house and very, very close to my house. And it was a a path that I took through the area on a very regular basis. And so there were there was a long period of time where I avoided the road.

I would take the the another route to get where I needed to go. but every time I took that road, you know, the tree is right there and passing by it, it's there's there's the tree bark is is broken off, never is grown back. And it just every time I drive by it it just reminds me of her.

David J. Bauman (09:39)
And it's a great metaphor for trauma that we experience as well.

Justin Strawser (09:43)
Mm-hmm.

David J. Bauman (09:43)
I mean, the person whose past is no longer suffering, but then we are in the memory. And I love that just near the end to to always remember what happened to still bear the marks. I've often been grateful that a cousin who I was very close to, my cousin Sam, who was killed.

in a car accident late at night, running into a utility pole. I I was often glad that I don't know where that I mean I kind of know I know what road it was on and I think about it when I was out there, but I'm kinda glad I don't know exactly the exact spot. so I think that would be difficult. And I imagine, well obviously it is. What el what else did you want to say about this piece?

Justin Strawser (10:23)
Well, I I think it f falls into sort of the theme of of that portion of the book. you know, when I over a five year period I I did lose about five people that I care very deeply about from

David J. Bauman (10:38)
Mm.

Justin Strawser (10:39)
about two thousand three, I think it was, to two thousand five or I'm sorry, two

David J. Bauman (10:42)
Hmm.

Justin Strawser (10:43)
thousand eight. and so a lot of the poetry in there

was written during that time, but a lot of it was also written after when I s came back to sort of exploring poetry a little bit more in my in my later years. so that portion of the book covers a lot of grief. And really it really shows I think what I went through and what people go through in grief.

'Cause I I try not to flower up the language a whole lot in my my poetry. one of the things that I heard while sitting at a lot of these open mics and these book festivals is, I don't like poetry, I don't understand it. I I think that a lot of people go through grief and go through depression and and go through these terrible things in their life. I

I've been told that I speak pretty honestly about how I how I've managed to get through that.

David J. Bauman (11:40)
Yeah. Yeah, I remember Matthew McConaughey was saying something in some interview where he said, you know, a lot of people say they don't like poetry or they don't know much about literature, but yet, you know, when when somebody dies or when when your daughter's getting married or, you know, something is happening that's important in your life, that's where those words, you know, really speak to you. I remember

Being at the first library I worked at, I set up a poetry workshop to see who would come. and this this young lady said, I want to sign up for the pottery workshop. And I said, no, no, it's poetry. And she said, I hate poetry. So yeah. It is

Justin Strawser (12:19)
Yeah, yeah. I've heard that a couple of times in the last six

months.

I did a an author event couple months ago and I left to go use the restroom and my niece and her husband kinda manned the table for me and I got back and she said, my niece goes, Yeah, there was one lady here who stopped and as soon as we said poetry, she's like, Nope and just left.

I don't know if she left like

the whole thing, but she left my left my table and she just wanted nothing to do with it. But

David J. Bauman (12:48)
Well, it's not off topic really because I I think maybe somebody who's looking for a podcast, of course, with a title like In Three Poems, you ought to you obviously know what it is. But

Justin Strawser (12:57)
Yeah, you kinda know what you're watching.

David J. Bauman (13:00)
maybe there's a slight chance that, you know, somebody, hey, maybe maybe you think you don't like poetry. You know, give us twenty minutes or half an hour. Maybe in three poems will change your mind, for a lot of people

Your art is something that is almost a a a salvation in a lot of ways. You know, po poetry is sort of like church to me these days, as is yeah,

Justin Strawser (13:20)
Well yeah, I can feel that.

David J. Bauman (13:22)
yeah. And so going going to if I'm going somewhere where there's where there's good music especially if it's local or hearing, you know, people's art, that's that's a like almost like a spiritual experience and that's a lot to say for a a non spiritual guy like me. So

so that leads me into thinking about you're a newspaper writer for a living, right? And

Justin Strawser (13:41)
Yes, yes. I

I've worked at the Daily Items since twenty fourteen and been

David J. Bauman (13:45)
Yeah.

Justin Strawser (13:46)
in the business since I graduated college in two thousand eight.

David J. Bauman (13:49)
So when I was at a local nonprofit conference recently, somebody asked you asked me like, Well, you're a poet? What are you doing here? And and it's I I thought it was it was it was a valid question, I suppose. But what what led you, do you think? Did were you writing poems early in your life? And

Justin Strawser (14:05)
Yeah.

David J. Bauman (14:06)
and what so what led you to to actually put together a collection? Was it like poems that you had gathered over time?

Justin Strawser (14:11)
yeah, it's it's been a long labor of love. I I I wrote a little bit of poetry as like a young young whippersnapper teenager. but it wasn't until like probably maybe a year or two before I graduated high school that I started taking it a little bit more seriously. And

David J. Bauman (14:29)
Mm-hmm.

Justin Strawser (14:29)
I would write in my notebooks and fill them up and because I had so much teenager angst I would be a

David J. Bauman (14:36)
Ha ha

ha.

Justin Strawser (14:36)
fill up a notebook

in like weeks. I I've been writing over, you know, maybe twenty-two years in in these notebooks so I I took the date of two thousand five and I went to twenty twenty five and I said,

David J. Bauman (14:51)
okay.

Justin Strawser (14:51)
let me look through my notebooks and see what I have in here that I might be able to put together. I had a lot of people say whenever I shared poetry that, hey when's your book coming out? And

I finally, at the beginning of twenty twenty five decided, yeah, I could probably do this. I feel like I have enough And the other sort of catalyst of deciding I wanted to write a book, and put these poet put put these poems together, I had suggested to my wife, why don't we look through all of our old notebooks and poetry and journals? And so we spent nights

And nights over the next over the summer of 2024, just sort of reading each other's words back and forth to each other. And it was

David J. Bauman (15:34)
Nice.

Justin Strawser (15:34)
a very intimate, it was a very intimate activity. And it brought us really closer as a couple, even though we had been together for, you know, almost a decade. we were still sort of learning new things about each other and learning new stories.

David J. Bauman (15:47)
It's awesome.

Justin Strawser (15:48)
so

That was sort of what led to me picking up poetry again and deciding that I wanted to put a a a book out there.

David J. Bauman (15:57)
I

love it. I love it. So let's get to the second poem. And this is also from the book. is there anything you want to tell us about this before you read it,

Justin Strawser (16:06)
let me let me just say that this is one poem in a series of ongoing poems

David J. Bauman (16:11)
Gotcha.

Justin Strawser (16:12)
about my son. he's three and a half now and part of the book is is a section of of poetry about him or things that he had said or things that I have felt while while raising him. So this this one is called

Moments That Feel Big.

David J. Bauman (16:30)
Mm-hmm.

Justin Strawser (16:31)
I wonder if you remember the moments that feel big in the same way I do. Like the day the ocean waves tried to pull you from my arms, but I wouldn't give you up. I hope you remember not the taste of the salt or the force of the water, but that for a second I was bigger than the sea. One day the ocean will come with another name, and you will ask me to let you go. You will remember how you needed me to lift you higher than the smallest ripple.

And I will realize it's time to open my arms and watch you swim.

David J. Bauman (17:04)
Kids are such good inspiration for poems, aren't they? Y especially as a dad who like for me when I became a dad, even though it wasn't strictly planned at the time or

Justin Strawser (17:20)
okay.

David J. Bauman (17:20)
at the time that it was supposed to happen, I always wanted to be a dad. And and I've always felt like that was the best, most important thing, you know, that I did, being able to try to

To be a guide and a caretaker for this young life that, you know, was here by no choice of their own

Justin Strawser (17:42)
Yeah.

David J. Bauman (17:43)
and fragile. And I remember taking from the hospital and thinking the first time I was like 23 years old and and I'm holding this baby and I'm thinking, we can just leave with him? Is that is that legal?

Justin Strawser (17:54)
I feel like that's a universal feeling, David. I was in my

late thirties and my wife and I had the same exact thought when we came home. It's like are we s are we allowed like there's no laws that preventing us from having no idea what we're doing? Walking in this house with a new beat?

David J. Bauman (18:09)
Shouldn't shouldn't there have been a test or something?

Don't I have to have a license for this?

Justin Strawser (18:15)
Right?

David J. Bauman (18:17)
I think I think what makes that, whatever situation it's in, whether you've adopted a child or whether you're very active aunt or uncle or you know, figure in in a young child's life, there's something about that watching them navigate through the struggles and trials and sometimes they don't recognize, that it's as big as as we do. Like

This sort of situation, I was thinking of my youngest son Micah when he used to just you'd had to watch him cool closely because he'd just walk right off the edge in the deep end, he'd walk first and think about it later. And he'd pull him up and he was still laughing, like no idea what danger he was just in. But he's so used to like somebody being there to to to to pick him up, And we hope that that we do a good job at that

Justin Strawser (19:07)
Yeah, and and this is based off a true story as well. I I if if memory serves, I believe this was the first time we took my son to the beach.

David J. Bauman (19:15)
Mm.

Justin Strawser (19:15)
And had to have been in his in the first year of his life because know, he was born in December. and I think we went to the beach that following summer. But it was just having him experience the water for the first time

He he's just sitting there in front of me and my wife is taking a video and the waves I I get distracted by by something and the waves just went slam into him and he starts crying and comfort and we started comforting him and it was all over within a matter of seconds, but it just it just inspired me because it's like, you know, the ocean is a great metaphor for a lot of different things. So

David J. Bauman (19:53)
Yeah.

Justin Strawser (19:55)
just thinking about this thing of of you know, I I saved you from this moment and I might not be able to save you from all the moments in the future, or you might not want to save me from the thing. It might be a good thing that's coming through. or

David J. Bauman (20:07)
Yeah.

Justin Strawser (20:08)
it it could be a variety of different things that are going to, you know, affect you in the future. And just so thinking about that as a dad, it just it just kind of inspired me.

David J. Bauman (20:17)
That's a great point that I hadn't thought of in this, that there may be those moments where the wrong decision, obviously, you know, instinctively and and in this situation, the right decision was to say, but there there are times I think where a parent tries to rescue a child when really maybe the child is wanting to get away, doesn't want to be rescued or maybe shouldn't be. And and I don't mean like, you know, neglect or abuse.

Justin Strawser (20:43)
Right, right.

David J. Bauman (20:43)
But and

and I say child maybe as a you know, as a grown child going off to college or, you know, doing their first ex experience. And if you're too protective, then they don't get the chance to go out there and experience, what's that thrill of taking the leap like. Yeah.

Justin Strawser (20:56)
Making the mistakes or or

variety of different things.

David J. Bauman (21:00)
I I can't help but but think part of that is like I hope you remember I was a good dad, that I did a good job. I I hope that that's what I did.

Justin Strawser (21:07)
Yeah, that's that's something I think about a lot. trying to be the best possible parent you can be. And my wife and I talk about just like we're we're gonna mess up somehow, you know.

David J. Bauman (21:17)
Of course.

Justin Strawser (21:18)
you know, we're we're we're gonna do something and he's gonna remember it one way and we're gonna be like, I don't remember that happening, but it was such a big deal to you. And so I'm

David J. Bauman (21:27)
Yeah.

Justin Strawser (21:27)
like, We're gonna screw you up somehow, but we're gonna try our best way

we're gonna try our best in every way possible not to do it on purpose.

David J. Bauman (21:35)
we talked before we started recording about Philip Larkin who was a poet. He's the one who has that poem, Your They fuck you up, your mom and dad. They don't mean to, but they do.

You sound like a really good parent. You sound like you're you're doing your best and you're you're keeping an

Justin Strawser (21:46)
I try so hard.

David J. Bauman (21:48)
open mind.

please do.

Justin Strawser (21:49)
Can I say something quick though about

My book has sort of sections and part of the early sections deal with grief, sadness, depression. And so there was a long there was a big chunk of my life where I kind of didn't want to write poetry or I

associated it with all this sadness, so I didn't feel like I needed to write poetry when I was happy. and, you know, that was some of the early stuff between me and my wife was not that she was angry about it, but she, you know, would bring it up sometimes of like, you know, write poetry about me. And I'll I'd be like, well, I'm kind of I'm I'm I'm happy, you know.

David J. Bauman (22:31)
Ha ha ha.

Justin Strawser (22:33)
and and so when we did that reading through our own stuff.

And when I started to collect everything, I started writing again. And my writing was more joyful And so, you know, the section with my son is just so full of joy. that's that's sort of the journey that the book takes from the grief that is part of that first poem we read to the joy of.

of my current day life. If that makes any sense.

David J. Bauman (23:00)
Yeah. Well,

I'm so glad you said that because

It's okay to write about the joyful things too. In fact, I think it's important to, you know.

Justin Strawser (23:10)
Yeah, it took me a while to figure that out, but I

I

David J. Bauman (23:12)
I think that's true for all of us. Walt Whitman making his bar barbaric yawp, there's there's the joyful things in his I Sing the Body Electric, of of course a lot of that is celebration and that that helps me too to read that. Mary Oliver is a poet whose name keeps coming up in some of these discussions and

She's written about some very difficult things. She's been through some very dark things. She was abused as a child. spent a lot of her time walking in the forest with a notebook but there is such joy in so much of her work you know, recognizing the darkness for what it is, but also recognizing the just miracle of being alive and being able able to to witness it.

the water thing though is a really nice tie-in. Because what that moment could have been like, it had me thinking of

my son Jonathan there was a an instance where we were out playing along a friend's boat and I had a moment where I panicked the

The water was moving pretty quickly. I went to reach for the boat and I ended up reaching for him. And I still feel this tremendous guilt about almost drowning my son. You know what I mean? I'm laughing now, but I was like horrified at the time. and that's a moment that I would think when I read your piece, I thought, God, I hope Jonathan doesn't remember that moment because

water can be such a powerful force that can, you know, change your world really quickly, you know, and you you need to take it seriously. and this next poem, there's a section of it that also had me thinking along those same lines. tell us about tell us about why you chose the next piece that you're gonna read.

Justin Strawser (24:53)
there is there is a poet named Brenna Twhohy w I d I I have done other projects as well and I'm still working on a couple different projects one of them is a fiction novel and

A section of her poem called January

was inspiring to me when I was writing that book.

David J. Bauman (25:13)
Mm.

Justin Strawser (25:14)
so I'll read the whole thing and then afterwards I'll I'll let you know the part that really spoke to me in the poem.

May It has been a year since the last time I told him I loved him, and it scratches at the back of my throat, a nasty cough desperate to break free from my body. My horoscope reads Happy birthday, Gemini. Mercury is in retrograde, and didn't buy you a present. The planets didn't think you'd make it, we'd watch you collect pill bottles, and we settled in for a long winter. We saw you pacing on that bridge in the whole sky dressed in black.

April. I'm worried you're biting off more than you can chew, everyone says. And I laugh, and run my tongue hard against the sharps of my teeth. Look into my mouth, this endless angry thing. You have no idea how much I can consume. March. I read an article about the instinctive drowning response.

It doesn't look anything like in the movies. But you don't call for help. Just try to pull air into your lungs. Just try to survive this water. Sometimes a child will go under while their parent is watching, and they don't even know anything is wrong. My mom asked if everything is okay, and I say of course. Drowning is a quiet, desperate thing. February. Three dozen crows drop dead in downtown Portland.

And no one knows why. January. One time in junior high, we found a 24 pack of Natty Light, stuck up in a tree in that field with the water tower. It was at least a hundred degrees that whole summer, and we sipped skunky sun scorched beer and thought, this is the life. One time I wrote in my notebook he loves me so much, it might shatter me. Which tastes different now.

and so the part if you if you've been following along with sort of the themes of what I've been writing

the part that really has spoken to me over the years is sometimes a child will go under while their parent is watching and they don't even know anything is wrong. My mom asked if everything is okay and I say of course. Drowning is a quiet, desperate thing.

And yeah, that part is always even before I had a kid, you know, that part has always been with me and and stuck with me for the last, I

don't know, maybe

eight years, nine years since I've read it. and it really I feel like it really fits into the theme of of what I've been trying to sort of convey with my writing as of late. because drowning is

is such a metaphor and has always been used as a metaphor for grief 'cause

David J. Bauman (27:57)
Mm.

Justin Strawser (27:58)
it feels like you're underwater and it feels like you're never gonna surface. you know, I I think it fits like I said, I think it just fits so well with that grief theme.

David J. Bauman (28:08)
And it also I think it ties in these i in all of these poems, this this idea of loss or potential loss, and the grief or even the the self-questioning, you know, like I hope you remember that.

I did a good job trying to protect you or whatever. But but also

Justin Strawser (28:26)
Yeah.

David J. Bauman (28:27)
that whole thing of as poets, you know, w we we often say it's it's our job to notice things, you know, and the importance

Justin Strawser (28:33)
Right.

David J. Bauman (28:34)
of being aware

that article that Brenna talks about having read, or the the speaker in the poem

that section reminds me of Stevie Smith's poem, Not Waving, but Drowning. And there's a line in that poem where she says, I was too far out all my life and not waving, but drowning, because it can be so hard.

that we don't always notice, that there's a quiet, desperate thing going on right under our nose.

Justin Strawser (29:01)
Right, yeah. And that's

definitely the part that spoke to me.

David J. Bauman (29:05)
Yeah, yeah. So you said you're do you're working on a novel.

Justin Strawser (29:09)
Yeah, there's a lot. I I always feel

David J. Bauman (29:12)
What?

Justin Strawser (29:13)
like I have a lot of projects going on, but never enough time to finish them.

David J. Bauman (29:17)
I hear that.

Justin Strawser (29:18)
I I would be regretful if I didn't mention no, I have an ongoing history series for the Daily Item called Hidden History. it just explores different aspects of the valley's past, taking little

Points of historical objects or places and sort of exploring how they came to be or what

David J. Bauman (29:37)
Mm.

Justin Strawser (29:38)
happened to them.

as we're recording this, I will th we'll be publishing a story about Knobles.

David J. Bauman (29:45)
okay.

Justin Strawser (29:45)
They have the original carousel horse from their first ride that's

David J. Bauman (29:50)
Mm.

Justin Strawser (29:50)
displayed in the park.

Hidden History is a series that I've been working on for about three years and eventually we plan to publish a book.

I don't know what the time frame of that is quite yet, but it's it's coming.

David J. Bauman (30:02)
Fantastic. I love stuff like that.

Justin Strawser (30:04)
And then I have been working on a a fiction novel for longer than I care to admit. it's just you know, other things get in the way and

it its title is A Quiet Desperate Thing. And I had reached out to Brennna a couple months ago to ask her for permission to use that section of the poem in the story and she did give me permission.

David J. Bauman (30:28)
fantastic.

Justin Strawser (30:28)
I've been writing poetry.

a lot since January since we released the book and feel like I've written a lot of great stuff.

David J. Bauman (30:35)
Isn't

that something? It's it's it feels like, you got you had all this stuff that you put together for collection and now you got it out and it's like now it feeds the beast a little bit, right?

Justin Strawser (30:43)
Yeah, that's sort

of that's sort of what happened when I was when we were first reading through our notebooks. it inspired me to start writing. and then when I started collecting everything again for the book, I started writing again. And now that I'm promoting the book, I'm back to writing even more on a on a n on a regular basis. so as I write

That I've been thinking about the next poetry book and and what's gonna go in it I think the next one will probably include some poetry from my wife, Jessica Strasser. she has been writing a little bit more since we've been going to these open mics 'cause I'll nudge her and I'll be like, You should read something. So

David J. Bauman (31:22)
Yeah.

Justin Strawser (31:23)
She's in also inspired by some of the strong feminist women that are there at these things. you know, when we were at Jessica Nirvana Ram's open mic a couple months ago, my

David J. Bauman (31:33)
Wonderful poet.

Justin Strawser (31:34)
yeah, my wife loves her and her work and was really inspired to write a few things.

David J. Bauman (31:38)
Fantastic. Well, thank you for being with me here. We will put links in the show notes for where people can get a hold of those who wait

thank you so much for taking a big chunk of your afternoon here with me and being on In Three Poems. This was a lot of fun. Thanks for being here, Justin.

Justin Strawser (31:54)
Yeah, yeah, I really

enjoyed this and I appreciate you letting me come on.

David J. Bauman (31:57)
We're gonna look wait for that novel, no matter how long it takes. Thank you so much, Justin.

Justin Strawser (32:05)
Thank you.

Outro (32:06)
For In3 Poems, I'm David J. Bauman. Our guest has been journalist and poet Justin Strasser. We'll soon take a brief mid-season break, but before we do that, we have the honor of talking with poet Carl Phillips. He and I will read from his book Scattered Snows to the North and his Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of poetry, Then the War. That's ahead of us next week, so pass the word. And if you could support the show for just a small amount, you can have first access.

To some behind-the-scenes bonus material, including a feature we're calling the fourth poem. Just click on the link in the show notes where it says support the show, or go to our Ko-Fi page for In3Poems. That's just ko-fi.com slash in three poems. Thank you so much, and we'll see you next week.