This is an interview with Somerville, Mass. based poet Lisa Beatman, author of the poetry collection: LADIES NIGHT AT THE BLUE HILL SPA.

In the bowels of the Ames Envelope factory on Dane St. in the Union Square section of Somerville...there is a poet. Lisa Beatman, author of "Ladies Night At The Blue Hill Spa," teaches English as a Second Language to immigrant workers at this sprawling industrial site. Although this is an unlikely place for an accomplished bard, it evidently has not effected Beatman's creativity. She is a Mass. Cultural Council Grant winner, and has been published in numerous journals locally and nationally. In "Ladies Night..." she penns evocative poetry about a group of women in a neighborhood spa. I talked with Ms. Beatman at her work site in the Ames Envelope Plant:

DH: I read that you received a graduate degree in education from Harvard University. You are a practicing educator and poet. How did you develop into these two different roles?

LB:I've been teaching for many years. Not any kind of teaching, but teaching language to immigrants in a new country. I spent years saying, " Be proud of your culture, learn to express yourself, speak up!" After a lot of years doing that--celebrating other peoples' culture, and saying: "FIND YOUR VOICE !," I woke up one morning and said, "OH YEAH!" I had been writing for some time after a painful divorce, and I just really started writing more. It wasn't writing as therapy, but it opened a window of emotion. I was reaching an age where I wasn't as worried about what other people would think. I was not writing for an audience, but to a particular muse or relationship. I started looking for venues for my work. This is very different from these young folks who go to MFA programs- right out of college. I think there is a lot of honoring of the young, fresh, vibrant voices...it is important to have at least as much honoring of the dense, chewy, scarred, accumulation of wisdom and bruises the older folks get.

There is so much emphasis on beauty, youth and perfection, especially for women. Maybe I was lucky...at ten my clothes caught fire, and I have a huge scar on my body as a result. It forced me to accept, before puberty, a body that always would be less than perfect. As a response to that, I always feel that if you are afraid of something you got to leap into it. So I look at scars as illustrations of uniqueness. We should honor who we are and how we age- things like that. A lot of my poems I consider mid-life crisis poems.

DH:You teach English As A Second Language at Ames Envelope in Somerville. Can you tell me something about your job? Is this a rich source for your work?

LB: Absolutely. I work with adults who have jobs, and are here from other countries ( mostly developing countries). They are trying to make their way. My students work so hard. Most of them work overtime. .Many of them have second jobs. They are just trying to make a life here. .

I love books. And I am working in a place where books are born. I see the big machines and the binding. There is a print-on-demand department here.

This company was started by a mail deliverer 80 years ago. He noticed that the commerical envelopes of the day were flimsy and would fall apart.He decided to invent the safety envelope.The business grew and grew. Ames does primarily envelopes and file folders today.

Everyday that I come to work, I am not an American any more. I am looking at America through my students' eyes.

I have written some poems about students. I've started many, at least. I've traveled
a lot...that informs my work.

DH:What is it about Somerville that makes it a fertile ground for writers and poets?

LB: It's so fascinating that it is. There are so many amazing artists that live in Somerville. I think there is something about the vibrancy of the city. Boston and Cambridge are so powerful as cities. Maybe they are a little too big for a sort of underground of artists. Maybe these outskirt communities like Somerville, Jamaica Plain and Roslindale are more fertile ground. They are quieter and less known. Maybe the focus is on the everyday person-the working class from Somerville- the Irish-American, the Armenian-American. In these towns we have great little cafes, but we also have the ethnic family businesses.

DH: In your poetry collection, " Ladies Night At The Blue Hill Spa" you use the conceit of a woman's spa for many of your poems. What is it about this setting that inspired you?

LB: I decided to do this first collection on the theme of inner-beauty. The Blue Hill Spa is a real place in Norwood, Ma. It is "so" not the upscale health club. This is one of the old fashioned community places that I love. I was surprised because I like solitude as most poets do. But I loved this environment. You go into a big old room, and there are different kind of women in various stages of undress. There are a lot of kinds of body
types, which you don't see at more upscale places. The women yack about their husbands, families, and they are not self-conscious. There is a friendship, a kind of honesty, that you get when you are in a bath naked together, that is different from the kind of friendship you have when you wear clothes. You are kind of protected from the outside elements. You are relaxed-you can't be too tense.

DH: Any new projects?

LB: I do have a manuscript I am sending to publishers, entitled " Rogue Female."

* This interview appeared in the Somerville News.

Doug Holder* Doug Holder is the founder of the Ibbetson Street Press of Somerville, Ma. and an arts columnist for the Somerville News.