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04/23/2012 12:00 AMIf someone who majored in mathematics became an actuarial analyst at an insurance company, you would say that it was appropriate. If the actuarial analyst turned out to be a poet, what would you say? You could just say Pamela St. Clair, because that's just what happened to her.
And yes, her elegant name is really Pamela St. Clair, not a stage alias.
"That's what I was christened," she says.
She returned to that name after a divorce because her married name created even more problems, particularly for Baywatch and Home Improvement fans. In married life, she was Pamela Anderson.
Pamela is one of five poets who will read from their work at "In Our Words," a program in celebration of National Poetry Month at the United Church of Chester on Monday, April 30 at
7 p.m. Other Chester poets who will participate are Pamela Nomura, Jonathan Gillman, Suzanne Levine, and Ravi Shankar. The United Church and the Chester Public Library are sponsoring the program.
Pamela majored in mathematics at Smith College because her father told her it would be a good way to find a job. The trouble was she hated being an actuarial analyst.
"It was the most boring job," she recalls.
She had always loved fiction and in her 30s, after finishing a book by poet Molly Peacock, she became fascinated by poetry. She began reading about poets' lives, principally those of Sylvia Plath, another Smith graduate, and Emily Dickinson. She describes them both as early influences on her own work.
Her own maturity was also important in her involvement with poetry.
"By my 30s, I was in a place where I could listen," she says.
As she looks back on her poetic journey, she wonders what would have happened if she had begun to write sooner.
"It might have helped with adolescent angst," she says.
Living in Rockport, Massachusetts, she recalls that, with some trepidation, she entered her work in a local poetry contest. She didn't win, but something important happened: She found a mentor who encouraged her to keep writing and critiqued her efforts.
Pamela, who has since that time earned a master's degree in fine arts from Vermont College of Fine Arts, says she starts most of her poems with pencil and paper and only uses computer when she edits. And she edits, and edits and edits.
"I don't think I have a poem that hasn't been revised at least 50 times," she says. "I'm still not sure when a poem is done. I worry that I am speaking for it when I should be listening for it to speak for itself."
Pamela meets weekly with two other graduates of the Vermont Fine Arts program, Suzanne Levine-who will read at the upcoming program-and Janet Passehl, to read and discuss their own work.
"It keeps you writing to have a deadline once a week," she says.
Another benefit, Pamela says, is that all three have very different poetic styles.
In addition to individually published poems, Pamela has published a small book, called a chapbook, of her own work, "On Receiving Word." She had entered a contest, and again had a positive, though non-winning outcome. A publisher, Finishing Line Press, was impressed by her work and brought out the chapbook.
As she looks at the book now, she can appreciate the autobiographical material in her poems clearly, but she says that was not her goal as she was writing.
"I hadn't realized the book was a memoir. That was not the intention," she says.
Success is but one way to judge poetry, Pamela maintains. Failure can be a better teacher.
"Poetry is coming to terms with failure, and failure is how you learn," she says. "If you don't have a chance to fail, you're not a poet."
Failure she defines as an inability to take risks, and to substantiate her words, she is taking risks on some other forms of writing. Recently she has done some flash fiction, very short stories that can be only a paragraph long, though Pamela's are from two to three pages, and she says she would like to try more traditional short stories as well as a children's book.
Pamela grew up in Chichester, Connecticut, and her childhood ambition was to be an actress.
"I guess it was too much of a risk," she says.
She first visited Chester when coming to the Goodspeed Opera House and loved the area. After moving back to the state from North Carolina, where she had taught English for several years, she felt the community's artistic reputation made it an ideal location for her to settle.
In addition to her own writing, Pamela teaches writing and literature at both Middlesex Community College and the University of Bridgeport. Teaching students how to write, she says, is really teaching them how to learn.
Poetry, Pamela knows, can seem both unapproachable and inaccessible to people who can feel intimated by the material, but she has some reassurance.
"You can like a poem even if you don't understand it," she says.
'In Our Words,' A Reading by Chester Poets
Monday, April 30 at 7 p.m. at the United Church of Chester
29 West Main Street
For more information, call the Chester Public Library at 860-526-0018.