When asked why she writes poetry, she is bound to quote Sylvia Plath, who said in Letters Home, “I write only because there is a voice within me that will not be still.”
In Dawn Spectre’s first collection of works, The Galloping Horse, the poet describes her evolution from writer to typewriter poet as an organic progression of her honed skills (freelance writer, teacher, bartender, painter, reporter) and the inheritance of a 1950s typewriter from her late husband.
Flora Farms’ in situ poet writes poems on her Olympia Deluxe typewriter for the intrepid petitioner. Love, death, romance, special occasions, gifts and events, anything or nothing, one word, or many, are all the subjects custom-crafted by “The Amazing Alba” into a typewritten poem.
With great delight she embraces each story, grateful for the sharing, then seeks the words, rhythm and images, to quickly form a single page of poetry. The result is a truly personalized poem, a snapshot of the petitioners’ thoughts, sometimes cathartic, sometimes invoking clarity perhaps unsought; a keepsake that marks the present moment. Gloria Greene, owner of Flora Farms wrote,
“Dawn Spectre’s beautiful poetry is akin to a one-woman band. She manages to hit every note, in her directly, sensitive, imaginative way.”
Children are fascinated by the solid machine that is able to create and print without electricity. They love seeing how the keys physically hit the ribbon and leave their impression. The young-at-heart love the sound which takes them back to a simpler time, pre-computer, pre-cellphone, when the typewriter was the avant-garde of communication in its day.
The poet feels blessed to be disconnected from modern day methods and connected to real people as she makes modern day art on her Olympia Deluxe in this enchanted garden oasis at the tip of the Baja.
Spectre is a Canadian-born, naturalized Mexican, a San José del Cabo resident for over twenty years. Among her freelance projects, Spectre has been copyeditor, translator and writer for the magazine Ocean Blue since 2013. She participates regularly in the state writers’ conference, Lunas de Octubre, and is a member of the Los Cabos writer’s association, E.S.A.C. She has been published in various online and print magazines including Formulato, a magazine published by the nonprofit group Rural Interaction dedicated to preserving rural ranch culture in the Sierra La Laguna. She received an honorable mention for a poem written in Spanish, in the contest Juegos Florales "Margarito Sández Villarino" in 2013.
Internationally recognized in interviews with Christopher Reynolds, of the Los Angeles Times and Devon Van Houten Maldonado, of The News, in Mexico City. Spectre has two published books: The Galloping Horse, her first collection of typewriter poems, and Oven Honey, a second collection of poems penned at Flora Farms, with a third collection in the works.
Tuesday and Saturday Evenings, Poet-in-Residence at Flora Farms.
