Chronicling A Critical Life Journey

SHELLI DORFMAN

Staff Writer

Deep inside an anthology of poetry
and prose are 22 pages of discovery
and survival by poet Loie Meeron.
A year in the making, At the Edge

of Mirror Lake: A Woman's Reader,

The anthology includes poems
about her cancer, with such phrases
as, "Cancer is being 3 and getting
lost...
One day in an art gallery, Meeron
opened a book, leafed through it
and discovered two things. She says
the book held "exactly what I had
been looking for: women writing
about things I could relate to."
Second, she

edited by poet Margo LaGattuta and
featured at the Local Authors Fair, is
a compilation of works by
Meeron and 12 other
a:
kt‘24 4 .:*
Michigan storytellers in
vs
their 20s up to their 70s.
LaGattuta calls the antholo-
Farmington HiliVWO
gy the result of writers look
ing "deeply into the mirror
for meaning." LaGattuta,
3055 W. MAPLE RD
associate editor and colum-
(WEST OF HAGGERTY),
nist for Suburban Lifestyles
COMMERCE TWP. 48390
in Rochester, Mich.,
OPEN SATURDAYS
includes her own work in
the book.
S 000.00
Capaall7cd Cost Reduction:
Loie Meeron
$ 500.00
Refundable Se,.uuly DcF)usit -
Meeron of Oak Park, an
S 495.00
Acquisition Fee:
educator, music specialist,
S 469.00
Fa , .' hlu Itlis Payment
$1,464.00
Amour• Due At Lea:..e, Inc f.i)tluti
singer and songwriter,
A Ihman's Reader
plea taxes. title and legstiation 'ees
crossed paths with
Edited by Margo LaGattuta
LaGattuta at very different
points in her life, at a time
noticed that it was edited by her for-
when her writing halted and again as
mer writing instructor, LaGattuta,
it reemerged.
who
was looking for writers to
Thirteen years ago, Meeron
include in At the Edge of Mirror
attended a writing workshop taught
Lake.
by LaGattuta. "Knowing the only
Through twice-monthly meetings
way to write is to write the truth,"
with others working on the book,
Meeron says she exposed herself in
LaGattuta and the women shared
her works. Then the immediate inti-
ideas and helped one another with
macy of being asked to read her
their
works.
words aloud, she says, brought her
Meeron
holds a bachelor's degree
to a level where she could neither
in
education
from Wayne State
return to class nor write. This cou-
University. Self-taught on the guitar,
pled with the fact that her journal
she says she has "a musical love of
was discovered and read by another,
Call for an appointment
children." Her poem, "A Whisper,"
Meeron says she came to feel there
she says is dedicated to "all the
was no safe place for her writing and
singing babies and their moms, and
she totally stopped.
to Janet Pont (her mentor and direc-
A diagnosis of breast cancer in
tor of Congregation Shaarey Zedek's
1994 was the returning point for her
Eugene and Marcia Applebaum
writing. From the second I got the
Jewish Parenting Center in West
call from my doctor about my suspi-
3425 Orchard Lake Rd., Keego Harbor
Bloomfield.)"
cious mammogram, I knew in my
(at Commerce Rd.)
"I had written my whole life for
gut that I had cancer," she says, and
myself,"
says Meeron, who is mar-
at that point I was sucked through a
(248) 681-5424
Mon.-Sat. 10-5
ried
to
Sheldon
and the mother of
pinpoint, into a teeny, tiny box. I
18-year-old
Ben.
Today, she finds
didn't get out for two years. The box
11571,S;
.SIXS
herself
grateful
to
be included in a
1111931
grew into a long rectangle, and I
InkSIISIXSTIMISUSIMIISTIAIISTAS
411
At the Edge of the
project
as
public
as
could
move,
but
I
stayed
in
it."
an
Mirror.
A cancer counselor suggested
Where in the past she self-con-
Meeron try to keep a journal, which
Purchase 12 Aluminum Pans
sciously
hid herself in her work, Loie
turned into stories. She began to
41
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Meeron
happily
announces, "I'm
0 write what those who read her works
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going
to
recite
for
you now, because
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deemed poetry: "I didn't even realize
iksi
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I
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very
fun."
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I was a poet."
SHERWOOD SQUARE SHOPPING CENTER
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