The seeds of Jenn Morea’s poetry germinated in high school “when a friend said to me once, when we were saying goodbye in the hallway at the end of the day, ‘Write me a poem.’ And so, I did. I think she sensed that I yearned to connect on a deeper level. Words have never come easy for me, in speaking or writing. So, when I started to write poems, it was a way to reveal that there was more to me than what was on the surface.
Morea, whose debut poetry book, The Hyacinth Letter, was published in February, was raised in Southeastern Michigan and has been a writer since childhood. She won a regional writing contest in sixth grade that led to her attendance at a Young Author’s Day at Oakland University. That pivotal day kept the spark alive for her to continue to hone her writing talents. Morea moved onto poetry at age 15 after that friend suggested that she write her a poem.
“I found that being able to collect my thoughts in private and write poems and revise them before sharing them was a kind of refuge for me.,” Morea recalled. “I came to realize that I had the capacity to express myself through the written word in a way I couldn’t through speaking, and that some of those words moved others and helped me connect on a deeper level, and that empowered me.”
To further her craft, Morea moved to Chicago to study poetry at Columbia College and then got involved with the literary arts organization the Guild Complex founded by Michael Warr, Luis Rodriguez and Patricia Smith.
“Guild Complex was my second home for years,” said Morea. “Every Wednesday night there was an open mic and a featured poet, and it was an incredibly vibrant and supportive multigenerational community. I served on the Women Writers Committee for five years and got to meet so many poets including Minnie Bruce Pratt, Adrienne Rich and Gwendolyn Brooks.”
With The Hyacinth Letter, Morea wanted to explore relationships between women who also have a strong connection with the natural world.
Morea said, “The poems draw from my life as well as respond to Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dororthy Freeman, 1952-1964: An Intimate Portrait of a Remarkable Friendship. The ‘hyacinth letter’ is a letter that Carson, author of Silent Spring, [a book which] helped to begin the environmental movement, wrote to express Freeman’s importance in her life.
“There is a kind of vigilance in my poems, a kind of tension, yearning, privacy and certainly an intimacy,” Morea explained. “All those aspects, at least in part, reflect my identity and experiences as a queer woman. Carson’s and Freeman’s relationship was for the most part long-distance, and that distance, and the closeness that letters can create, resonated with me.”
Morea added that she hadn’t written in nearly eight years except to return to The Hyacinth Letter to make new revisions. She had originally sent the book out in 2010 but there were no takers, so she kept doing revisions over the years.
“Last year, after not sending it out for years, I felt renewed enthusiasm about sending it out again,” said Morea. “After living out-of-state for three years, I returned to Chicago, made new revisions, and in my second week back, submitted the manuscript to Headmistress Press for its 2024 Sappho’s Prize in Poetry. Two months later, it was awarded the prize. I still feel quite surprised.”
The Hyacinth Letter is Morea’s third full-length collection, but the first to be published, she said, adding, “I sent books out intermittently over three decades, and it means something different now to have a book published than it would have been when I was younger. I fully trust the timing.”
Another way Morea has expressed her creativity is through the lyrics she wrote for the Candy Claws album Ceres & Calypso in the Deep Time. She discovered the Candy Claws album In the Dream of the Sea Life, a musical companion to Rachel Carson’s The Sea Around Us, right before traveling to Maine to visit Bates College, where Freeman’s and Carson’s correspondence is housed.
“I woke up thinking that I should make a soundtrack for the drive,” said Morea. “I would also make a visit to Southport Island, where Carson and Freeman shared their summers together. I knew this trip would be remarkably meaningful for me and I wanted the companionship of music that expressed both the expansiveness and intimacy of the experience. I wondered if anyone had composed music related to Rachel Carson’s books.
“My local independent record store encouraged me to contact Candy Claws directly. I wrote to the band and explained that I was writing a collection of poems inspired by Carson’s and Freeman’s letters and that The Sea Around Us was the book that made it possible for Carson to purchase her summer cottage on Southport, which led to her meeting Freeman. Ryan Hover, one of the founding members of the band, sent a note in return and In the Dream of the Sea Life arrived the day before I left for Maine.
“Two months later, I started to correspond with Ryan about the creative process and how we find a subject for our music and writing. This correspondence resulted in an invitation from the band to write the lyrics for the next Candy Claws album. To create a sense of continuity with the band’s previous two albums, early in the process I handwrote and read every morning the lyrics from In the Dream of the Sea Life and Hidden Lands. Midway through the writing process, Ryan had the idea to give each song two titles, one for the music and one for the lyrics, to emphasize our collaboration.”
Morea has also worked as a teaching artist in Chicago, Oak Park and Evanston Public Schools since 1996 where she has “collaborated with classroom teachers and arts specialists to design learning experiences for students that integrated poetry with science, social studies, creative movement, math, music, language arts and visual arts.”
For 15 years Morea taught with the Arts Integration Mentorship Project at Columbia College Chicago, where she also taught English composition and “The Teaching Artist in School and Community Settings” course.
Among Morea’s other talents are as a curriculum designer and professional development leader for K-12 teachers. Since 2017, Morea has worked with the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago where she developed a middle school-focused curriculum for the Young Arts Critics Program that teaches students to write critically about the performing arts.
Of the School Matinee Program, which provides free buses and performances by world-renowned performers, Morea said, “I love being a resource for Chicago teachers and supporting them in preparing their students to get the most out of their field trip experience by sharing ideas for activities connected to the performance that activate students’ imaginations and support them in responding critically and creatively.”
Morea has also designed a meditation curriculum and started offering it as a class in 2012 to middle and high school students in Chicago Public Schools. This winter she taught yoga and meditation to students in grades K-4.
“It’s great to meditate and move creatively with children,” said Morea. “They are so receptive, sincere, and imaginative. The day after I introduced the butterfly pose, a student said, ‘Hey, Ms. Morea, look at me! I made a new pose!’ When I asked what the name of it was, the student said, ‘Hatching Butterfly Pose,’ and it really did look like that.”
As for her other activities, Morea can be found outdoors on a kayak, paddle board or on a hike. She also loves to compose music for the piano and is pursuing certification as an Ayurveda Lifestyle and Nutrition Coach.
When asked what she wants people to do after they read her new poetry book, Morea said, “I hope that more people will read Rachel Carson’s and Dorothy Freeman’s beautiful correspondence and learn about Rachel Carson’s meaningful life and work or deepen their understanding of her.”